The Greatest Generation (RESTART)
by Wild Goose 01
Summary: The Abyssal War rages on, with Kanmusu worldwide holding the line... except for the American shipgirls, conspicuous by their absence, when the US Navy and the world needs them most. Yvonne Swanson, US Navy intelligence officer, sets forth for Yokosuka Naval Base to find answers, both about the ship girls and the Abyssals... but she may not like what she finds...
1. Part 1: Arrival at Yokosuka

_From the ocean depths, they came._

 _No one knew who they were or where they came from, but what is known is that the Abyssal fleet, powerful entities taking the form of young women, emerged one day without warning to force mankind from Earth's oceans. Appearing first in the Pacific, and then spreading across the seven seas like a black plague, mankind soon found itself under siege._

 _The world was thrown into chaos by this new threat. Shipping lanes were severed, global communications were disrupted and millions of lives were lost at sea._

 _Civilisation itself was at stake._

 _Mankind tried fighting back against these enemies, but found that their most powerful ships could barely hold the line against an enemy that seemed numberless. Worse still, despite the bravery and courage of many brave souls, that line eventually broke._

 _With the destruction of Pearl Harbor and Norfolk, it seemed that mankind's defenders had finally failed, and that fall of humanity was at hand… but then a miracle happened._

 _As if hearing the call of duty once more, protectors in the form of young girls, bearing the reincarnated souls of warships of ages past, took up arms._

 _First appearing in Japan, young women wielding powers that could fight against the darkness were found, trained and then sent into battle against the Abyssal fleet._

 _These heroines were dubbed 'Kanmusu'.The ship girls._

 _It has been one year since the first ship girl took to the battlefield. Since then, the Abyssal fleet has been pushed back, away from many of the world's most vulnerable port cities, by the combined effort of the brave ship girls, giving mankind some much needed breathing room._

 _In the Pacific, the young women of the former Imperial Japanese Navy fight valiantly to rid East Asia of this menace. The Royal Navy, Marine Nationale and the Deutsche Marine work as one in an unrelenting war to keep the English Channel and the Atlantic convoys safe from the Abyssal raids. The Regia Marina, now flying the standard of the Marina Militare, have swept the Mediterranean clean of Abyssal presence and now turn to aid others. In the northern seas, the Red Fleet braves the harsh artic cold in a deadly game of cat and mouse against their quarry._

 _Around the world, warships from every nation have returned from the grave in a time of direst need to serve their countries once more…_

 _Warships from every nation… save, it seems, those of the United States Navy._

* * *

 **Disclaimer:** This is a non-profit work of fiction using characters from the Kantai Collection franchise, developed by Kadokawa Games and published by . Please support the official release.

 **Additional note:** Please be advised this work contains allusion to certain contemporary issues, namely war crimes perpetrated by Imperial Japan in World War 2. This work is meant to be for enjoyment, and no offense is meant. Also note that, as a fanfiction, many liberties were taken with Kantai Collection canon for the purposes of this story. That being said, please enjoy.

 **Additional Note 2:** Please take note that this is a continuation of the story with the blessings of the original author, sasahara17. The content of the originally-published chapters will be preserved to the best ability of the KC:TGG committee made up of:

biodude711  
kct  
LostJman  
Shaithan  
Sheo Darren  
TheBleachDoctor  
vren55  
Whiskey Golf

* * *

 _It was a memory that she would never forget._

 _Pearl Harbor was burning._

 _The sheer horror of what was before her was like nothing she had ever experienced._

 _Great plumes of smoke reached into the sky from the fires, a sound accompanied by the desperate screams of the dead and the dying. Indeed, the water itself was aflame from oil that coated it._

 _It truly was a scene out of hell._

 _Never in her career had she ever experienced anything like this._

 _She wasn't the only one who had trouble believing what she was seeing. Around her, thousands of sailors of the United States Navy looked on from the deck at the inferno before them. The bastion of America's military power in the Pacific, Pearl Harbor, was burning._

 _Impossible._

 _An attack as brazen and destructive as this should have been unthinkable, but it had happened. Now people were dying, her comrades, and she was powerless to do anything but look on. Thousands dying, and she had arrived too late to do anything._

 _The cold chill of the knowledge that, but for the whim of fate, she too could be in amongst the dead and dying, was something she would never forget…_

"Commander Swanson? Commander Swanson, are you alright?"

Yvonne Swanson gasped awake, the feeling of someone shaking her shoulder pulling her mind back from her dream. Cracking open her eyes, the young officer remembered she was still strapped into her seat on that stupid C-17. Beside her was the USAF airman had been sitting beside her, Master Sergeant Hammond, if memory served her correctly, who had shaken her awake.

The flight was fairly empty today, with barely a dozen or so men and women milling about, so there had been no one else to notice her discomfort.

"Goddamn, ma'am. That must have been some nightmare," the man said, his concern evident.

"No shit. Are we there yet?" Yvonne asked dourly, brushing her blonde locks out of her eyes.

The young officer wore Service Dress Blues of a commissioned officer of the United States Navy, and filled out the uniform smartly. She was very tall, in fact she was a few inches taller than the man addressing her. Her normally untamed sandy blonde hair was tucked neatly into a bun and covered by the white peaked cap resting nicely on her head.

She was the very picture of a model officer of the Navy, even if she was absurdly young to be wearing the rank of Commander… or she would be, had she not just woken from that accursed nightmare. Much to her displeasure, Yvonne brought her hand up and noticed it was still shaking, and she didn't need to look into a mirror to see how pale her face probably was.

"Last I checked, it's still another two hours before we land at Atsugi," Hammond supplied. "Are you okay? You were tossing and turning something fierce back there, Commander. Do you need me to get-"

"No need, it's just old memories," Yvonne replied dismissively. "And I thought I told you to not address me by my rank when we started this trip."

Not really one to stand on ceremony and wanting to avoid the any unnecessary awkwardness, Yvonne had asked Hammond, a career soldier of least two decades, to avoid addressing her by her rank. She was a slip of a girl who looked barely older than twenty, and he was a man well into his late forties. It felt awkward for a man clearly twice her age to keep addressing her as his better, especially since she didn't like being reminded of her rank.

It was one thing to have gone up in rank through experience, hard work and dedication. It was another to have been made a Commander because the battles against the Abyssal fleet had left so many vacancies that the Navy was promoting anyone they had left with any sort of experience who could even remotely fill the billets.

The old saying was true: promotions came fast in wartime. It wasn't pleasant to be reminded of that, and Yvonne knew she wasn't the only one in the Navy that felt that way.

"Sorry ma'am. You're an officer, and well, old habits die hard."

"Well, stop doing it. I'll make it an order if I have to," Yvonne sighed as she settled back into her seat, "and I'm fine. I just can't stand being on this plane any longer than I have to."

"If you say so, ma'am," Hammond said, although his tone of voice hinted that he wasn't convinced.

Although Yvonne was annoyed that he seemed to be treating her line some kind of porcelain doll, this was something she'd gotten used to. Hammond wouldn't be the first to treat her like this, or many other US Navy officers with more than three years under their belt for that matter.

The casualties the Navy had taken just trying to hold back the Abyssals in the early months of the war were mind boggling: no other armed service had lost so many men or material trying to hold the line. At the start of the war the USN was the largest most powerful blue water Navy to ever exist, responsible for keeping the peace and protecting the world's oceans.

When the Abyssals appeared, it fell to them to stop this new threat.

The men and women of the Navy did their duty, and died doing it. The majority of their surface fleet, including nine of their aircraft carriers, and a good number of the fast attack submarine force… all gone. Their arsenals at Pearl Harbor and Norfolk razed to the ground. So many good men and women, dead, and people were still trying to figure out why.

Before the Abyssals had appeared, Yvonne had thought that December morning in 1941 was the darkest day in the US Navy's history.

Clearly she had been mistaken.

Great, now she was thinking about Pearl all over again.

"So, why are you going to Yokosuka anyway?" Yvonne asked, wanting to distract herself from those dark thoughts. "I can't imagine what an old Air Force guy like you will be doing over there."

"Well, since you asked, I'm a tech. Predators and Reapers," Hammond supplied. "Not sure what good we can do though, since I hear those carrier girls of theirs have pretty much got everything covered."

"Don't sell yourself short. Conventional weapons can kill an Abyssal just as good as a ship girl's can."

This wasn't just Yvonne trying to make Hammond feel better. The Navy had won plenty of engagements against the Abyssal fleet before the ship girls were finally implemented. The problem was just that every single one of those victories was won in blood.

The Abyssals were endless in number.

The US Navy, significantly less so.

It was a simple matter of attrition, and it was one that the US Navy simply could not win.

"Yeah, but it costs a shitload of lot more money to shoot a dozen Hellfires at one Abyssal destroyer than it is for a ship girl to do the same job. She'll probably do it a hell of a lot better than we could do it too since she doesn't have to cross her fingers and hope something hits either," Hammond sighed. "Man, getting _kids_ to fight this damned war for us. I know there's not much we can do but… It just ain't right, y'know?"

Yvonne, a girl that looked young enough to be Hammond's _daughter_ , couldn't help but find humour in Hammond's statement, but decided to keep her mouth shut. This was the welcome distraction from her restlessness that she had been looking for, after all.

"Well, every little bit helps. We all do our part, and trust that one day it _will_ matter."

"Ma'am, you sounded like a damn recruiter," Hammond said, his amusement finally overshadowing his earlier concern. "Bet you got sucked in with all those recruitment slogans, eh?"

"You know the one; America's Navy, a global force for good," Yvonne nodded with a faint smile.

"Jesus, look at you. I just got that Captain America vibe from you. They should be sticking _you_ on the recruiting posters!" Hammond laughed, "So why are you heading down there? Going to tell how those Jap girls how awesome _our_ ship girls are going to be when we finally get some?"

"Well no. I'm with the Office of Naval Intelligence, actually. I was sent by Admiral Briggs to find the origins of the Abyssal fleet."

Hammond stared.

"You're shitting me. Ma'am."

Yvonne looked at him dead in the eye.

"You're serious. Fuck. That's… wow… just… wow." Hammond leaned back into his seat, as if to steady himself. "That's a helluva responsibility they handed to you, kid. I mean, ma'am."

"We're short on manpower. Somebody had to do it," Yvonne shrugged. "We know how to fight these things well enough, but we understand so little about them. I expressed by thoughts to my superiors, and the next thing I knew I was an O-5 with a plane ticket to Japan."

"Shit, good luck to you then," Hammond said.

"Thanks. I'm going to need all the luck I can get."

Finding the origins of the Abyssals was going to be a tall order. There was a reason nobody had been able to figure out what they were until now: they always shot first, they never surrendered and were never taken alive… or dead for that matter.

There was speculation about what they were of course, but no real definitive answers.

With luck, Yvonne was going to change that.

"Say, you're with ONI, right?" Hammond turned to face Yvonne with a hopeful expression. "Hey, if it won't get you into trouble or anything, do you know when we'll be getting ship girls of our own?"

Yvonne couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"Not this question again."

* * *

 **Kantai Collection: The Greatest Generation**

Part 1: Arrival at Yokosuka

* * *

The dawn sun rose over the land of the rising sun, just as the C-17 finally touched down at Atsugi, and Yvonne had the good fortune to be treated to the breathtaking sight of the morning sun illuminating the bay.

While most of the USAF personnel were too busy offloading their own equipment to pay heed to the spectacle, Yvonne took a moment to admire the view.

"Well, I hope this is a good sign."

"Commander Swanson?" Yvonne turned to find a young Japanese man standing behind her in the JMSDF service dress uniform. The young officer gave her a snappy salute. "Lieutenant Satoshi Matsuda. I have orders to take you to Yokosuka Naval Base."

 _"Pleasure to meet you, Satoshi-Ittō Kaii. Please don't stand on ceremony,"_ Yvonne crisply returned the salute, while speaking in Japanese… only to notice the man's lips curl into a smile.

"Sorry Commander, looks like I was trying to be a little too smart for my own good," he said in perfect English. "My first name is Satoshi. I just thought I'd reverse the order since most people from the States are used to having it the other way 'round."

"Oh, well. Yeah," Yvonne grumbled. She'd spent all that hard work learning the language too! "Goddamn it, I could _swear_ that's a New York accent."

"Bingo. I grew up in New York while I was still a kid. My Ma used to be on the UN delegation and I tagged along for about six years. Never quite lost the accent."

"You went with your mother to New York?"

"It was either that or live on a boat with the old man."

"Huh, well isn't that something." What were the odds that a JMSDF officer who grew up in New York would be the one to pick her up on her first day in Japan?

"I had my subordinate grab your bags to save you the trouble," Matsuda informed her, as he motioned Yvonne to a nearby jeep, clearly the one that they would be using for transport. Stowing what was clearly Yvonne's luggage into the back of the vehicle was a very conspicuous dark haired young woman in a dark blue uniform and an eyepatch.

Yvonne didn't have to be a genius to know _what_ that girl was.

"Thanks for the help," Yvonne said graciously.

"Well, we'd best be on our way. The Admiral has been looking forward to your arrival for some time now," Matsuda agreed, "Still, it's nice to know you know Japanese. You might not need it with me, but trust me, you _are_ going to havta to use it a lot where you're going."

* * *

Yokosuka Naval District had a long and storied history.

Originally a quaint little native fishing village, its strategic location would result in the district becoming home to some of the greatest concentrations of maritime power in history. It was the main arsenal of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and then later became a major centre of US Naval power as United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka.

In the light of the near total destruction of the Seventh Fleet against the Abyssals, Yokosuka had once again reverted to its original ownership. The US maintained a small section of the base for themselves since the USAF was now an active part of the war effort in the region, but otherwise the whole district was more or less back in Japanese hands.

This was very apparent to Yvonne as she watched her surroundings go by while the small jeep travelled towards its destination. Years ago, this was the home port of Carrier Strike Group Five, a fleet with enough military power to challenge entire countries.

Now, the only thing left that indicated that the USS _Ronald Regan_ was ever here was the odd signpost in English that the JSDF hasn't taken down in the district's remodelling.

"You've been awfully quiet, there," Matsuda asked in Japanese from the driver's seat., "You okay?"

"Sorry, it's just… it's hard to take in how much we've lost," Yvonne replied in the language. "We used to be all over this place, but now it's like we were never here."

"Yeah, Carrier Group Five. Went down swinging against an Abyssal battlegroup thrice their size, when they refused to abandon a passenger ship full of refugees." Matsuda shook his head sadly.

Yvonne closed her eyes and grit her teeth, fighting back the anger she felt towards the Abyssal fleet for that massacre. Her anger was tempered with the feelings of pride at the bravery and courage of her countrymen, but this didn't change the fact that good people had died because of those monsters.

Yvonne's discomfort must have been apparent, as Matsuda quickly took it upon himself to change the subject.

"So, you're not going to ask about Tenryuu or what?" Matsuda inclined his head towards where the ship girl sat in the back seat. Tenryuu was leaning against the window with a bored expression, the kind that indicated just how little she cared about being there. "Most people get quite excited when they meet their first Kanmusu."

"No problem, just pretend I'm not here. I just carried your bags for you and all that," Tenryuu snarked grumpily, earning a reproachful look from Matsuda in the front seat.

"Oh, uh, sorry," Yvonne said abashedly.

She'd been so caught up in her own thoughts that she'd neglected to thank Tenryuu for helping her with her luggage, because she had been so focused on the base itself.

Now that she had realized this though, Yvonne was getting a distinctly _uncomfortable_ feeling at allowing Tenryuu to be _right behind her_.

This was going to be a problem.

"Fufufu, ya scared?" Tenryuu chuckled upon noticing Yvonne's silence.

"Not really. Just kind of overwhelmed by everything that's all," Yvonne recovered smoothly. "Besides, no offense, but compared to Abyssals you look kind of… normal? Does that make any sense?"

"Che. Admiral, this is a waste of time. Why do _we_ have to be the one to drag this Yankee over to the base anyway?" Tenryuu groused lazily. "There could be so many other important things we could be doing with our time. I mean c'mon, I could be training or something, not playing a bellhop."

"Tenryuu! She is a guest. Watch your tone."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll shut up. Going to take a nap, so wake me when we get there." Tenryuu leaned back, and within moments was out like a light.

"Bad subordinate?" Yvonne said to Matsuda in a hushed tone.

"Temperamental. _Very_ good at her job though, and she's invaluable in keeping the kids in line," Matsuda explained with a sigh. "This was not what I expected to be doing when I received my commission."

"I can relate. So… Admiral, huh?" Yvonne quickly glanced at Matsuda's insignia and confirmed that the man she was with was indeed a mere O-3. There was probably a story behind that, hopefully one less morbid than how she had come into her own rank.

"Little cultural quirk all our Kanmusu have. If you're their commanding officer, you're an Admiral to them, regardless as to what rank you really are," Matsuda clarified. "It helps that most people that are in charge of them are really Admirals, but then you get an officer like me who's put in command of a few Kanmusu because of efficiency or necessity."

"Yeah, so how _did_ you wind up in charge of her then?"

"Expeditionary force: basically I'm in charge of logistics, and since I work with Destroyer Division Six so much, they ended up putting me in command of them to save me the runaround, and it pretty much went from there. Now I have two light cruisers and four destroyers under my command. Well, one cruiser and four destroyers: Tatsuta's over in the United States at the moment as part of our detachment at San Diego. Normally I have her as my de facto secretary ship, but since she's on the other side of the Pacific at the moment, well… we make do."

"Sounds like you lucked out."

"More or less. So, Commander, huh?"

Yvonne couldn't help but give an amused huff. This guy had a bit of snark of his own. The pair quieted as they had arrived outside at a large imposing building that was clearly the main headquarters of the base. Pulling into the driveway, Matsuda stopped to allow Yvonne to disembark.

"Thanks for the ride."

"Don't worry about your bags, we've already assigned a room to you so I'll have 'em sent there. Just go straight to the lobby and take the elevator to the Admiral's office on the top floor, you can't miss it." Matsuda helpfully directed her.

"Thanks for that."

"It's not a problem. Call me if you need anything, Commander," Matsuda said, before taking off.

* * *

"Commander Yvonne Swanson, reporting to Yokosuka Naval Base, as ordered," Yvonne announced, coming to attention. The Admiral, seated behind his desk, simply nodded as he skimmed through her papers and acknowledged what was in them, while she waited patiently for him to finish.

"So, a mission to discover the origin of the Abyssal Fleet? And you are all they sent?" The weathered old sailor looked at Yvonne with curiosity.

"We are very shorthanded right now, sir."

"Shorthanded as the US Navy is, I am sure that they could have sent more, given the significance of this mission," the Admiral noted matter-of-factly. "Sending a girl of your age alone to take care of a task as monumental as this either speaks of desperation, or of your ability. I wonder if it is the former, or the latter. How do you intend to succeed, where so many others have failed?"

"The outline of my mission, as well as its specifics, have been outlined in detail with the brief included with my transfer papers, sir."

"I am aware of that, but some parts of this briefing have been redacted."

"My methods are classified, sir. I have been instructed to keep them on a strict need to know basis. I can, however, assure you that I am confident in my success," Yvonne replied smoothly.

The Admiral raised a curious eyebrow, seemingly both intrigued and taken aback by the confidence and oddity of her reply. "That is an interesting reply, Commander."

"It's the only reply I am authorized to give, Admiral."

"Indeed. Military intelligence… always so vexing." The Admiral set her papers down. "Your orders come with the approval of the Chief of Naval Operations himself, so I see little reason to hold you for longer than I already have. I will call my assistant to show you to your quarters."

"Thank you, sir."

"Welcome to Yokosuka Naval Base, Commander Swanson."

* * *

When the Admiral's secretary showed up, Yvonne was quite surprised to find that the aide to the most senior officer on the base was, in fact, a ship girl.

"I am Battleship Nagato, pleased to meet you. I am the Admiral's secretary ship." The long haired beauty gave a respectful bow to Yvonne, who had been waiting outside the Admiral's office for her escort. "I welcome you to Yokosuka Naval Base, Commander Swanson. It is an honour to have you in our base."

"It's… an honor to be here?" Yvonne said.

That feeling that uncomfortable feeling she had from Tenryuu returned, this time tenfold.

Yvonne knew how irrational the feeling was, but allowing one of the most powerful big gun warships ever built so close to her person, knowing well that Nagato had enough firepower to level the entire building, if not the entire base, was a terrifying prospect.

She felt so naked and alone without someone with her.

Good god, she'd only met two Japanese ship girls so far and already she felt like running to Dakota and O'Bannon for help.

Maybe they were right; this wasn't such a good idea after all.

"I am making you uncomfortable."

"Not… not a problem." Yvonne squelched down on her discomfort with her considerable force of will and successfully regained her composure. _Get a hold of yourself woman_ , she chided herself. "Sorry, but this is all very new to me. I haven't met many Kanmusu before. My experience with this sort of thing has been mostly with the Abyssals until now."

Nagato seemed to study Yvonne with interest. It seemed that the battleship wasn't about to let the issue drop without one final push. Thankfully, Yvonne knew exactly what to say to that.

"…I was at Pearl."

"Oh. I see. You have my condolences, then." Nagato winced sympathetically.

"Could have been worse. I could have been at Norfolk," Yvonne grunted sourly as she recalled the horror stories. A good portion of the fleet had been docked in there for repairs when it had happened. Poor bastards hadn't even gotten the chance to weigh anchor before the Abyssals stormed in and turned the whole place into a charnel house.

"Then do not worry, Commander. We are nothing like the Abyssals. You will have nothing to fear from any who serve. In fact, take comfort in our presence: each and every Kanmusu on this base would lay down their lives before allowing you to come to harm."

"Well hopefully that won't be necessary."

"Indeed. Shall we?"

With that the two women walked through the winding halls of Yokosuka's main HQ. Nagato proceeded to give Yvonne a brief tour of the building, pointing out where all the basic facilities were or anything that might be of interest to Yvonne, before showing the American to the guest quarters they had set up for her.

One thing that caught Yvonne's attention was just how _empty_ the building was.

Unlike Naval Station Everett where she had been stationed previously, Yokosuka base seemed to be operating on a skeleton crew. There were people around of course, they encountered the odd officer here and there, on their tour, but it was far less than even what Yvonne had been used to. When asked about it, Nagato was all too willing to explain.

"The Admiralty prefers to keep us Kanmusu segregated from the regular troops, because it makes people uncomfortable to know that we are fighting in their place. As such _this_ base is operating on essential support personnel for us Kanmusu only. Aside from the helicopter destroyer _Izumo_ and the guided missile destroyer _Mirai_ , which both are operating at a reduced crew on the south quarter of the base, the majority of our conventional fighting strength has been relocated to Maizuru."

"Wise choice," Yvonne agreed.

After the absolute bloodbaths that were Pearl Harbor and Norfolk, several navies had opted to relocate their conventional fighting strength to safer waters, away from large oceans where the Abyssals seemed be coming from. Sure, it meant that those ships would have to take a considerably longer route to get to the engagement zone, but the added safety was well worth the inconvenience. It wasn't as if conventional forces where that effective anymore, now that the ship girls were on the scene anyway.

If she remembered her geography correctly, Maizuru was facing away from the Pacific Ocean towards Russian waters, and thus would be less vulnerable to attacks from the Abyssals coming in from the south-east. Even if it were to be attacked, they would have at least some advance warning to prepare defenses, or at worst case, evacuate.

"Can't imagine it was easy fitting all your ships in Maizuru though."

"Not much left to fit. We lost half our surface fleet before we Kanmusu were developed. Nowhere near what your Navy has lost, but still not an inconsiderable amount. Those Abyssasls _will_ pay for that they have done," Nagato glowered darkly.

"Amen to that."

"Ohy, Nagato!" A cheery voice interrupted the pair mid tour. Both Yvonne and Nagato turned to regard an excitable brown haired young girl in a white shrine maiden's outfit - at least what Yvonne _thought_ was a shrine maiden's outfit - who was bounding down the hallway towards them.

"Hey! This must be the American girl I've been hearing so much about! IT IS NI-CE TO MEET YOU. HOW ARE YOU DO-ING! WELCOME TO YOKOSUKA."

What.

"Kongou, I see you have returned from your mission. I trust it went well."

Jesus Christ, _not_ _another battleship_.

"YES. I, Kongou, completely dominated the enemy with my BURNING LOVE for the Admiral. He was most PLEASED with my performance!" Kongou animatedly clenched her hand to display her unbridled passion, something that went directly over Yvonne and Nagato's heads. "But enough about me, this is the American who's come from abroad to help us? GOOD DAY MY NEW FRIEND! _HUGS!_ "

Then Kongou scooped Yvonne up in a big bear hug, a true feat considering Yvonne was at least a head and a half taller than Kongou, causing the American to go completely rigid in the excitable battleship's arms.

Yvonne had been already uncomfortable by just being _near_ Nagato.

Getting _hugged_ by Kongou was enough to make the naval intelligence officer's every thought process come to a screeching halt.

"Eep," Yvonne squeaked.

Nagato, having buried her face into her hands, seemed to be on the verge of weeping, before she turned to Yvonne and gave a low sigh. "Kongou…"

"MY NAME IS KONGOU, NAME SHIP OF THE KONGOU CLASS. I COME FROM ENG-LAND. WHAT IS YO-UR NAME? WOULD YOU LIKE SOME TEA?"

"She can speak Japanese, Kongou."

"Please… let me have some personal space," Yvonne gasped, wondering if it was just her imagination that her ribs felt like they was cracking under the crushing embrace of the fast battleship Kongou. Holy shit, this girl was strong. Thankfully for Yvonne's lungs, Kongou released her, allowing Yvonne to lean against a nearby wall to catch her breath.

"Ah, SORRY," Kongou said, cheerfully apologetic.

"Kongou, she is a foreign officer of the United States Navy and a guest. Please try not to embarrass us completely and show some tact," Nagato rebuked sternly. Kongou gave a nervous laugh, having realized she may have been a little too excited about Yvonne's arrival.

"It's fine Nagato. I'm not hurt or anything," Yvonne said as she caught herself. "It's nice to meet you Kongou. I did some research before coming here, and it is an honor to meet one of the more decorated members of the ship girl fleet."

"HA! Yes, so you have heard of me! GOOD JOB!" Kongou beamed happily at the praise. "Anyway, GREAT that America is _finally_ joining the fight. So, which ship are you?"

Yvonne groaned.

"Oh, not this _again_."

"Kongou, please, we've been over this," Nagato sighed.

"Which ship? America has so many cool ships I, Kongou, can't even begin to guess who you are!" The brunette continued undeterred., "I'm sure they brought back their best. So? WHO ARE YOU? Are you the Iowa? Wait NO! She's still afloat as a museum ship… Missouri! Wait no, that's not it either. Houston? Hm, no REACTION. Pennsylvania? No. Arizona? Hm, not her either. AH, YES! With that _flight deck chest_ as flat as yours, you must be-"

"Commander Yvonne Swanson, United States Navy, Office of Naval Intelligence," Yvonne said sharply. "I was sent here to discover the origins of the Abyssal fleet."

There was silence as Yvonne allowed this to sink into Kongou's brain. It almost made Yvonne guilty to see the disappointment fall over the excitable girl's features, as she understood the full ramifications of what Yvonne was saying.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you," she added, not unkindly.

"You're not a Kanmusu?" Kongou said in a tone reminiscent of a kicked puppy.

"Would a ship girl be working for naval intelligence?"

"Kongou, we've been over this," Nagato cut in to spare Yvonne the trouble. "The American Navy was decimated by the Abyssals, trying to hold the line while we were being trained. At the moment they're still in the process of rebuilding their fighting strength. They can't help us just yet."

"You mean the official story is right? I thought that was just the American President telling fibs," Kongou sighed. "Man, SO DISSAPOINTING."

"If it helps, when we do eventually get some ship girls ready to help you out, Yokosuka is at the top of the list for places that are going to be reinforced," Yvonne placated her. "The JSDF has been kind enough to station a task group at San Diego. The least we could do is pay you back when we get the chance."

"Oh, SORRY. I didn't mean any offense. I was just so excited since I thought I was finally going to meet some new friends," Kongou hung her head apologetically. "I've been reading up on history and the US Navy had some of the most POWERFUL ships in the war. SO COOL! If we had them fighting with us, this war would be over in no time."

Yvonne couldn't help but agree with that.

* * *

"This is your room, Commander Swanson."

Yvonne's first impression of the room was that it was nice, if in a humble cosy sort of way. Certainly better than her old accommodations back in Everett, but then again back then she wasn't a Commander. It was modest room, sporting a single bed, a cupboard, a desk and a chair, but the make of the furniture and the nice view afforded by the single window overlooking the base made it feel more like a hotel room than assigned quarters that apparently doubled as her personal office.

As promised by Matsuda, Yvonne noted that her effects had been left at the foot of the single bed in the corner of the room.

"Thanks for showing me around, Nagato," Yvonne said as she walked over to her duffel bags to begin unpacking.

"The Admiral has nothing for you for the rest of the day. It has been decided to allow you a day to overcome your jet lag and get settled in," Nagato said from where she stood at the doorway. "He has advised me that from tomorrow onwards you will be assigned an aide to assist you in your duties as you see fit. While you are a foreign officer, please remember that this is a Japanese Navy facility and you are to adhere to all our rules and customs as required…"

And the lecture went on.

Wow, what a square.

Even so, as a representative of the US Navy, Yvonne did the honorable thing and listened to Nagato as she continued on about protocol and discipline for some time. Thankfully, the impromptu lecture was 'only' for about ten minutes or so, and soon the secretary ship turned to other matters.

"I will see to it that Kongou is reprimanded for her actions," Nagato noted once she had finished, "What she did was impolite, and an embarrassment to our Navy. I will see to it that the Admiral knows about this. On behalf of the Japanese Navy, I offer you our sincerest apologies over what inconvenience she may have caused you."

"Hey, I told you not to worry about it," Yvonne insisted, with a wave of her hand. "Look, there's no need to go bother the Admiral. It's actually nice to have met someone who was so friendly like Kongou. I was actually a little worried that my reception on the base would be a little, well, cold. I don't think it'll do me any favors making enemies on my first day here."

Nagato shifted on her feet awkwardly.

Oh, that wasn't a good sign.

"…Yes, it might be wise to remain on Kongou's good side. Very well, if that is your order, I will not tell the Admiral, just this once. Any other breach in protocol after this will be dealt with, however."

"I sense there is something else you want to say?"

"You will find that Kongou is a… minority on this base," Nagato stated carefully, with tactfully chosen words. "Many of our comrades are not as understanding of the current plight of the US Navy and feel affronted that you have not produced Kanmusu of your own yet. Some of your Navy's more vocal critics will not take your arrival to Yokosuka very well."

"I see." This was upsetting, but not something Yvonne hadn't foreseen before coming.

While the rest of the world's navies had solidly established their ship girl fleets, to the point where the Italians had already certified that the Mediterranean was Abyssal-free, the United States was lagging behind. It wasn't surprising that this was the case; a quarter million casualties, the destruction of the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and two of their largest installations fleet bases wasn't something that the Navy could recover from quickly.

It was so bad that most of the Navy's operations for the last nine months were centered on trying to assess just how much they had lost and tallying the death toll. Reconstruction efforts had only just begun. Going from the most powerful blue water navy to what they were now was traumatizing to everyone wearing Yvonne's uniform.

Most, even those who had been formerly critical of the US Navy's power, understood. It had been the US Navy that had held the line while everyone else struggled to find a solution. After all they had been through, after all their blood, sweat and tears, the US Navy deserved some slack.

Unfortunately, there were always detractors who wanted to know why the exhausted remnants of the once proud United States Navy weren't doing more by throwing themselves back into the fray. Most of these detractors were politicians, civilian commentators… and ironically enough, many ship girls of foreign powers, who couldn't appreciate what the conventional forces had suffered holding out against the Abyssal threat.

"Many of our Kanmusu are young and don't fully understand how much this war as cost us, or more precisely has cost your nation," Nagato informed her. "As secretary ship, I do. However, most Kanmusu just live day by day and battle by battle. They don't see the bigger picture and can't understand why America hasn't joined in the fight yet. That, with the stresses from their battles, may mean you will find many who will voice their displeasure to you."

"I understand. This was is hard on all of them, especially since they're the ones who have to fight it now. I won't fault them for it, " Yvonne replied.

"…Thank you for being so understanding. You are truly a credit to the uniform you wear," Nagato said with a hint of awe at Yvonne's equanimity, genuine respect in her eyes. "If that is all, I will leave you to unpack."

"Yeah, no problem."

"We will assign a permanent liaison to you. Until that time, I will attend to your needs. As a member of the Admiral's staff, I stay in a room further down the hall, next to the Admiral's office. It can be identified by the name plate. My sister, Mutsu, rooms with me. Do not hesitate to call upon Mutsu or myself if you require anything."

"Fine, thank you." Great. Two battleships. Just dandy.

"You can also go to the room next to yours if you wish. If she is in, Yamato would be happy to attend to you if you need anything, since her schedule normally leaves her available."

"Okay. Got it-wait, what? **_YAMATO?_** "

Jesus-fucking-Christ, _where are all these battleships coming from?_

* * *

"Yes Admiral, I see. Thank you. I'll do my best. Goodbye."

Given that she hadn't brought much in the way of personal effects with her, it didn't take Yvonne very long to unpack her effects and arrange the small room to her liking. After that, she'd slipped away to the former US section of the base.

Effectively abandoned by both the US and Japan, this gave her a bit more privacy to freely use some _special_ ONI equipment she'd brought along… like the encrypted satellite phone she'd used to call Admiral Briggs and let him know that she was alright. It wasn't strictly _necessary,_ since she'd already left a message with his secretary shortly before seeing the Japanese Admiral, but given how much he'd helped her out, she thought he'd appreciate the call.

As it turned out, he did.

"I can't believe he waited until 1 in the morning for me." She'd forgotten the time difference between Yokosuka and Washington D.C. and had been slightly embarrassed to discover that, especially when Briggs revealed that he had stayed up with _worry_ just waiting for her to check in.

A four star admiral, worrying about lil' ol' her.

How embarrassing.

Well, she had one more call to make, and if her calculations weren't off it shouldn't be that late over in Seattle. Punching the number into the phone, Yvonne patiently waited for the operator to pick up.

"Naval Station Everett-"

"Naval Station Everett? This is Commander Swanson for Advanced Naval Weapons Research and Development. I wish to speak with Lieutenant Dakota Leigh Gatch."

"Oh, E-um, Commander Swanson! She's been waiting for your call all night. I'll put you through to them right away!"

It didn't take very long for the operator to transfer Yvonne's call to the newest and most secretive division. When the line next picked up it was the familiar voice of one of Yvonne's oldest friends.

"Calling over an unsecured line? You make for a lousy spook, Swanson."

"Oh put a sock in it, Dakota," Yvonne chuckled, just picturing her bookish friend on the other end of the line. Knowing Lieutenant Dakota Leigh Gatch, she was probably multitasking at the moment, likely reading a book or watching the news while talking over the phone, all at the same time.

"So did I win the bet?"

"Oh, yeah. Yeah you did," Yvonne sighed as she ran a hand across her forehead, "I kid you not; they got me in the room right next to _Yamato_. So yes, I sure as hell wish I hadn't been so stubborn and let you come along. I could use you as a meat shield right about now."

There was a slight pause.

"…okay, now I'm thankful I didn't. Being in so close proximity to those eighteen inchers? I'd need a clean change of pants. Sucks to be you, my friend."

"I haven't met her yet, though, but I sure as hell am not looking forward to the experience," Yvonne grumbled, "You called it. I bit off more than I could chew by coming to Japan on my own."

If Yvonne's reactions to Nagato or Kongou were anything to go by, she was probably going to faint dead away at meeting the most powerful battleship ever built. Her friends, the people Yvonne normally leaned on for support, were an ocean away.

Without them, she felt exposed, vulnerable, especially now that she was a stranger in a strange land, surrounded by unfamiliar people.

But then again, maybe they'd be in the same boat: all of them fainting dead away one after another like a bunch of falling dominoes.

Freaking _Yamato_.

Yeah, actually, that's probably what would happen. So much for the US Navy's best and brightest.

"So what's happening back over there? Anything to report?" Yvonne asked as she filed away that amusing thought for another day.

"You know the story. Same shit, different day. Politicians spinning their wheels, Navy planners going apeshit over the amount of things needing to be done and not enough stuff to actually do it… the works," Dakota complained gruffly.

"I thought you guys were working with DARPA?"

"Please. We have the toys, but can't play with them. Do you have any idea how boring that is?" Dakota sighed "The whole budget's been going into reactivating that old carrier they dug up."

"They greenlighted recommissioning the _Kitty Hawk_?"

Yvonne ran her free hand down the side of her face. The USS _Kitty Hawk_ had been decommissioned for years and had been languishing as a museum in Pensacola, Florida. However, with the loss of nearly all their aircraft carriers, Yvonne had been aware that there had been a movement in the Navy to find, overhaul and recommission any still seaworthy ship to replace their losses… even ones as old as _Kitty Hawk_. She'd personally thought those guys were out of their minds, especially since the Navy should have been using their limited resources elsewhere, but apparently some guys on high really couldn't picture a US Navy without aircraft carriers.

"Oh, yeah. Sandy is over there helping out. Said something about not trusting anyone else with proper anti air, whatever that means, and then off she went. I don't think it was everything she expected though."

"She's not the only one. This wasn't what I expected to be doing when I got out of training." Yvonne grumbled.

"I don't think _any_ of us expected this when we got out of training," Dakota laughed, . "Well at least you're doing _something_. I spend most of _my_ day brainstorming new ideas and staring at blueprints that we can't actually build. Navy Intelligence gets to do all the awesome shit, Sandy's working with that carrier, and I don't think O'Bannon's had a day off since she started with the Seabees."

Yvonne couldn't help but roll her eyes at Dakota's misconceptions about the Office of Naval Intelligence. The master of multitasking had clearly been watching too many tv shows and had gotten the wrong idea about what ONI actually did. "Any word on Tresh?"

"Probably gone off to work with getting the submarine fleet back up and running, but you know her. She's not exactly the social type," Dakota said jokingly. However what she said next took on a very different tone. "Hey, Yvonne. Are you sure you're over there alone? It's just you over there along with every Japanese ship in the war. You could always come back, you know?"

Yvonne stayed silent for a while as she contemplated how to reply. Dakota had disagreed with her rather vehemently over Yvonne's instance on going to Japan. She was alone, surrounded by ship girls and no friends in sight.

"I wouldn't have come halfway around the world if I wasn't serious, Dakota," Yvonne replied with a sigh. "I can't just sit around anymore and hope things get better. At least this way, I can be useful. I can do something worthwhile."

"Stubborn as a bull, as always," Dakota sighed. "Well, if that's the way you want to play it, go right ahead… but for god's sake, you call me if shit hits the fan, alright? The whole gang will be over there before you know it to bail your sorry ass out."

"Yeah, I got that. Thanks, _mom_."

* * *

With the only remaining obligations she had for the day done, Yvonne had just focused on getting readjusted to her new surroundings, the time difference between Yokosuka and Seattle was quite significant, and by late-afternoon when she finally returned back to the Japanese ship girl portion of the base, Yvonne was feeling very drowsy.

Still, the best advice she had been given about jetlag was to stay hydrated, keep herself active and adjust to her new schedule, so Yvonne did the only thing that came to mind – go for a drink.

For off-duty personnel at Yokosuka, Houshou's café was the place to be.

Owned and operated by a retired 'decommissioned' ship girl, a true rarity considering how new they were as a whole, the café catered almost exclusively to the Kanmusu of Yokosuka and what few support personnel they had on the base proper.

Nevertheless, its fame reached the ears of jealous USAF and USN personnel who had their access restricted from going anywhere near it, given how touchy the Japanese were about their ship girls, something that the American brass had apparently agreed with. If access to the base wasn't so heavily restricted, the place would probably be the next big tourist hotspot.

Given that Yvonne was apparently one of the few US Navy officers to whom the restrictions didn't apply to, she decided that, on behalf of the service, it was her sworn duty to go where no American had gone before and see what the fuss was about.

And so it was that Yvonne Swanson walked through the doors of the café. It was a modest establishment that couldn't play host to more than a dozen patrons, but its small size created a simple air of homeliness that Yvonnne found pleasant. The time of the day Yvonne had chosen to visit also meant the place was more or less empty.

Behind a kitchen counter was the owner herself, Houshou, the ship sometimes referred to as the 'mother of all aircraft carriers'.

"Oh! You must be the American that I heard would be coming!" Houshou, a matronly woman in a pink kimono, turned from where she had been washing some dishes to give Yvonne a warm smile. "Please take a seat, I'll be right with you."

"Don't mind if I do," Yvonne said, as she chose one at the counter. "With how famous this place is, I thought there would be more people here."

"You probably don't know this, but the Admiral suddenly called for a large meeting that all Kanmusu and support personnel had to attend." Houshou finished cleaning the dishes and dried her hands on a nearby towel. "He probably heard about you getting accosted by Kongou and decided that they needed another prep talk."

"Wait, what? I thought I told Nagato-"

"Don't worry. The Admiral found out about it from Kongou herself. I know you tried covering for her, but that child is honest as they come," Houshou laughed in the same way a proud mother would when recounting the mischief of her children to a friend, "Don't worry, she won't get angry. I think she was actually worried that she offended you or something and went to the Admiral for help."

Yvonne shook her head in disbelief. Fast battleship Kongou, one of the most famous warships of World War 2… it boggled the mind that the girl had ended up becoming such a klutz.

A loveable klutz, but a klutz nonetheless.

"It is so rare to get new patrons. May I know the name of the person I am speaking to?" Houshou produced a menu for Yvonne, who graciously accepted it.

"Commander Yvonne Swanson. United States Navy Office of Naval Intelligence," Yvonne introduced herself politely.

"I see. I am pleased to meet you, Commander," Houshou bowed politely from behind the counter. "My name is Houshou, light aircraft carrier and proprietor of this café. Retired, of course."

"If you don't mind me asking, what's the story behind that?"

Kanmusu were very new, having been only having actually been fighting for the past year or so due to training requirements, so coming across one that was retired was a surprise indeed. Houshou was also a carrier, a rare and expensive commodity, even despite her outdated technology compared to other Kanmusu. Her having retired to what was more or less civilian life was a puzzle that Yvonne couldn't pass up.

"Well, I was the first aircraft carrier Kanmusu," Houshou explained with a nostalgic smile. "While officially we Kanmusu did not actively begin operations against the Abyssals until a year ago, the JMSDF had actually started using small groups of us in limited numbers well before that.

" _Really_? That's news to me." Yvonne said with some surprise.

The public reveal of the Kanmusu by Japan was only about a year ago, and it had taken the world by storm. The remnants of the US fleet had been fleeing the burning inferno Pearl Harbour, their battered hulls packed full of refugees from Honolulu. With escape to the mainland United States deemed too dangerous, given that they had learned Norfolk had been attacked at around the same time, they had instead chosen to make best speed for an allied port in the Philippines, thinking it the safer option. It had been the wrong decision.

They had come under attack from Abyssals halfway there. Exhausted, demoralized and low on supplies and munitions, there wasn't a thing the convoy could do but look out at the approaching storm and wait for death. Then, just as things had seemed hopeless, their miraculous saviours had appeared - war goddesses riding the waves, slaying those demonic monsters and saving the lives of every man, woman and child in the flotilla.

Safe to say, it was generally agreed by the world's populace that ship girls were pretty hard to miss.

"Unfortunately most of what we did were sea trials and tests. We were new weapons and people were still trying to get an idea on how to use us, so there wasn't much we could do," Houshou admitted sadly. "Back then, there were just ten of us separated into two battlegroups: plenty of younger girls were in training, but only ten of us were actually seaworthy at the time."

"I see."

"I really wanted to help you know," she sighed forlornly a shadow of guilt cast over her features falling into memory, "It was tough waking up every morning to hear news reports of how your people were fighting and dying while being unable to do anything because we just weren't _ready_. When I heard about the Battle of the Bering-"

"Coffee."

"Excuse me?" Houshou blinked as she looked at Yvonne, who was now pointing at an item on the menu. "I'd like some coffee. Black. Strong as you can make it."

"Oh. Oh! I'll get right on it, Miss Swanson!"

Houshou quickly gathered herself and went about satisfying Yvonne's orders, not noting the understanding look of pity Yvonne was giving her as she did so.

* * *

"…so after that, with Akagi and Kaga ready for battle and with my injuries making it difficult to hold a bow, it was decided that that I should retire. Maintaining an obsolete carrier when resources are so thin isn't cheap. So after I was decommissioned and had my equipment scrapped, the Admiral was kind enough to offer me this building so I could say close to my girls and support them as best I could out of respect for my years of service. So, now here I am, proprietor of this café."

Houshou finished her tale just as Yvonne had finished her cup of coffee.

"That's quite an adventure you've had, Houshou. I had no idea that there had been so much fighting before you went public."

"Well, as I said, it was mostly small skirmishes as field tests. Nothing quite like the battles that are happening these days. We only picked fights we knew were in our favour and left most of the heavy lifting to the regulars," Houshou replied modestly.

To be honest Yvonne felt Houshou was selling herself short: the matronly woman before her was a pioneer that paved the way for every other ship girl that came after her. Maybe she was right in that she only fought in battles stacked in her favour, but she had also been doing so using untested equipment and tactics. In Yvonne's opinion, going into battle with that kind of the risk involved made Houshou even more courageous than many of the still serving girls.

"How did you manage to fly under the radar for so long anyway?" Yvonne asked with great interest. "You said you worked with researchers for _years_ before announcing your existence. How'd you manage to blend with normal humans in so well?"

"Do we ship girls really stand out that much?" Houshou said.

"Well, from the few I've met so far, let's just say they stand out in a crowd. No offence, but you're the first one that I've met so far that could pass for a normal person."

Yvonne couldn't help wonder how Houshou had managed to remain secret for so long, especially after meeting Tenryuu, Nagato and Kongou. Every single one of those girls dressed flamboyantly and carried personalities to match. More than that, just being around them caused Yvonne to feel like there was an incredible weight to their very presence.

All this was missing from Houshou, who by all appearances seemed to be a normal woman. If Yvonne hadn't already known who Houshou was, she'd likely have just pegged the café owner as 'that nice lady who runs that shop' and left it at that. What was her secret?

"Well, the younger generation certainly like being as flamboyant as they can be!" Houshou giggled in that matronly way again. "Well to be honest, it's simple really. Take away the uniform, our rigging and equipment, and we're just ordinary human beings that just so happen to have the souls of warships in our bodies. Unless we're deliberately trying to make our presence felt as warships, it's quite easy to blend in if you don't try anything to outrageous."

"Really? That's it? I thought there would be more to it," Yvonne said, with some disappointment.

When the Japanese had unveiled their Kanmusu, their secret weapon that they had managed to develop while the US Navy was bust getting pounded, it was entirely to the surprise of the Office of Naval Intelligence: to this day it had been a sore point for them that they hadn't even caught of whiff of what the Japanese had been doing, and that this war winning development had happened entirely without their knowledge… let alone with actual sea trials dating back well before their most conservative estimates!

Granted, ONI had their attention elsewhere at the time, but it still stung.

Maybe it was all in the past, the secret was out so there was no point in fussing over it now that there were more pressing matters to attend to, but many of the surviving members of ONI still felt that it was a blow to their professional pride. As such, Yvonne felt like she had to ask this, for her office's sake at very least.

"There really isn't. I _do_ have some supernatural powers that allow people to feel that I am more than human, but as long as I don't do that well… I'm just little old Houshou that owns a café."

"Really? What about those little people you girls have?" Yvonne tried making an appropriate gesture with her hands. "What do you call them? Fairies? I heard Carriers like bringing lots of them everywhere they go. That has to be a bit conspicuous, don't you think?"

"Oh my, whatever gave you that idea?" Houshou giggled, "Why, I just left my fairies back at the base whenever I had to leave for outside business so I didn't stand out. Simple as that. Really, if you want any more proof, just look at me now!"

Well, Houshou did have a point there.

"Well darn, many of the boys back home are going to feel really silly when they hear about that. I was so sure you had some hocus pocus card trick up your sleeve," Yvonne grumbled.

"If it helps, the prototype Kanmusu all dressed much more conservatively than they do now." Houshou motioned down at what she was wearing. "I think most of the younger girls dress the way they do as a show of solidarity. At least… I _hope_ so."

"Yeah, some of the stuff they're wearing is kind of… odd." Yvonne sighed.

"I could give you some tips on how to deal with being around the active duty Kanmusu," Houshou offered, "I know it can be a bit overwhelming to a first timer at being around them. We do bear the weight of history on our shoulders, and some people have trouble with dealing with that."

"Nah. Thanks for the offer, but I'm good." Yvonne said. Despite what had happened with her run ins with Tenryuu, Nagato and Kongou earlier, the problem wasn't so much that Yvonne was unused to ship girls. Rather, that Yvonne was alone and next to THOSE ship girls.

Light cruiser and two _battleships_. Freaking hell, why couldn't she have run into some destroyers or something?

"I'm very used to having friends with me. It's been that way for a while now," Yvonne informed the matronly woman before her, "They're my safety blanket so to speak. My armourarmor. Without them, well to be perfectly frank, I feel _exposed_."

"…I'm not sure what to say about that." ," Honshu replied with a look of pity.

Houshou probably drew the conclusion that Yvonne was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and had used being with others as a way to cope. It was a reasonable conclusion; practically everyone in the US Navy with more than two years' experience knew someone who had died, and that had left plenty of people suffering from PTSD from the horrors they had seen.

"If that's the cause, you shouldn't push yourself," Houshou said concernedly. "I can only guess what it must have been like for you, but…"

"Hey, it's fine. MO gave me a clean bill of health before I even left the base," Yvonne said. "But we're so short-handed I felt I was being a burden. They were needed elsewhere, and I figured Yokosuka was a friendly port, so I took this assignment to go cold turkey on my needy ways."

"This is a pretty extreme way of going cold turkey."

"Well, that's what it means. You don't do things in half measures, you know?" The pair shared one final laugh before Yvonne pushed herself off her seat, deposited the payment of yen down on the countertop. "Thanks for the coffee. It was great."

"It was my pleasure. Feel free to come again," Houshou said, but then paused as she considered something. "Commander Swanson. A question, if I may?

"Go right ahead. I'm not in a particular hurry to get anywhere."

"I know you probably get asked this a lot, but since you're with Naval Intelligence, do you know when the USN will be starting up their ship girl program?"

Upon noticing Yvonne's face darkening with irritation at having being asked that same question again on the same day, Houshou quickly amended her statement.

"I mean, I know the USN is in the process of rebuilding their forces so it might be some time until you will be able to, but I would like to know if there's an estimate you can give me," Houshou asked. "Also, if you can tell me, do you know which ships will the Navy try to bring back first?"

Okay this was slightly different. Houshou was clearly looking for something far more specific now instead of a general ballpark figure. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, as I told you earlier, I personally trained both Akagi and Kaga. I know they've physically not that much younger than I am, but I think of them as my daughters," Houshou explained, motherly concern apparent in her eyes. "They're very brave and I'm very proud of what they're doing, but I can't help but worry about them. They carry such a heavy burden, and I sometimes wish there was someone who can help them shoulder it."

A lump settled in Yvonne's stomach as she listened to Houshou's words. She could see where this was going.

"You are looking for _someone_ ," Yvonne surmised, fighting to keep her feelings in check. "You don't just want the US Navy to have ship girls… you want them to have a specific shipgirl."

"Yes I am," Houshou replied, "Please, Commander. Do you know when the US Navy plans to bring back the _Enterprise_?"

"You, light carrier Houshou, the one called the 'mother of all aircraft-carriers', are hoping that the USS _Enterprise_ would take to the field as a ship girl," Yvonne stated bluntly, frowning. "Why?"

Houshou nodded and explained herself.

"Among us aircraft carriers, none have won more renown then the _Enterprise_. Even though we were on opposite sides of the war and even if some would not openly do so out of pride, I can tell you that many of us carriers regard her as the greatest of our number. Maybe there were others later in the war that were larger, more powerful or advanced… but none were braver, determined or more corageous. If she was with Akagi and Kaga, I would feel much better," Houshou said, the quiver in her voice at the fear for her daughters mixed with the reverence she had for the most decorated aircraft carrier, hell, most decorated US Navy warship, to ever exist.

"You speak of her as if she was a hero," Yvonne stated evenly.

"She is. One of the best," Houshou replied with lowered eyes. "I think you would agree that in times like these, heroes are what we need."

"…I see."

"Do you… know when she will come?"

Yvonne couldn't help but hide her clenched fist behind her back, venting her anguish and frustration in private, cursing herself all the while. She looked Houshou in the eye, and told the first lie she truly regretted making that day.

"I'm sorry, Houshou. But I don't."

* * *

Even though she had spent hours at Houshou's café, it was still light out by the time Yvonne returned to her room. Her previous good mood at having made a friend in the café owner had evaporated, and had been replaced with revulsion and self-loathing. Yvonne practically stormed all the way back from the café into her room, ingoing the few surprised looks from the few she had passed along the way, and securely locked the door behind her as she did so.

Yvonne wasn't really one to vent. She prided herself on her composure and professionalism as befitting of an officer and gentlewoman of the United States Navy.

But thinking back to Houshou's earnest pleading look and having to give that bald faced lie was too much for even her to take. Throwing herself down her bed and seizing her pillow, Yvonne proceeded to let out a muffled scream of rage and frustration into it.

Maybe this might cause a scene.

Maybe this was unbecoming of her.

Yvonne didn't care.

What the fuck was she doing? She was IN Yokosuka Naval Base, practically the front line of the war… and she couldn't give them the help they deserved.

She was surrounded by young women who were actively fighting in that said war, risking their very lives for emperor and country as was their sworn duty. They had asked for help from the US Navy, who once fielded the most powerful armada of ships the world had ever seen… and if history was anything to go by, had the potential to field the most powerful armada of ship girls out of all of humanity's potential defenders. They needed help.

Commander Yvonne Swanson, a mere intelligence officer who had been given her rank because there were so few people who could fill the empty shoes she now wore, couldn't give that.

She wished she could tell them the truth. That the Navy wasn't as bad off as everyone thought it was – the United States had four major branches after all, and while the Navy and Marines had been almost decimated, the Air Force and Army were still going strong. Even with all the re-organisation that was going on, it had been a simple matter to redirect resources from those the healthier services back to the Navy to jump start the crucial Ship Girl program.

The US Navy had been bloodied to be sure, but all their losses hadn't caused them to break. Rather it had steeled their resolve: even after all they had lost, the Navy wanted see the fight through to the end as was their duty.

At least, that was the plan.

The program had been a debacle. Attempts to bring back the spirits of ship girls were unsuccessful. No matter how much the USN tried to follow the tried and tested procedures as dictated by the JDSF, they were confronted with failure after failure.

No matter how much they tried, it seemed that the spirits of the departed United States vessels, from their greatest generation no less, had refused to answer the call to arms.

The German Deutsche Marine had seen the return of the legendary Bismark and nigh unkillable Prinz Eugen. The French Marine Nationale was heroically led into battle by Richelieu and the Georges Leygues. The Italian Marina Militare's Littorio sisters had successfully led a campaign to make the Mediterranean Sea Abyssal-free.

The UK's Royal Navy had been pleasantly surprised when an over-eager HMS Termeraire, the 98 gun second rate ship of the line, had enthusiastically reported for duty, only to discover she was an two centuries out of date in terms of equipment.

And Japan? Well, Yvonne was seeing firsthand just how well Japan's ships had responded.

Around the world, warships of ages past heard their nations' call, and had heeded it dutifully…. except for the ships of United States of America.

Yvonne lay in her bed staring at the ceiling as memories of anger at and frustration played over and over in her mind from witnessing all those repeated failures to produce usable ship girls played over and over in her mind. Houston. Pennsylvania. Arizona. None of them responded to their nation's call.

Not when America, and the girl named Yvonne Swanson, needed them most.

* * *

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **Beta Note:** Hello, folks. I'm Wild Goose/Whiskey Golf, sasahara17's regular beta and the formerly anonymous beta for The Greatest Generation. You may be reading this and going, "wait, didn't I read this last year?" and "Hey, wasn't this taken down or something?" The answers to those questions are "yes" and "yes". So, I think some explanations are in order.

Essentially, around November 2015, as I was doing beta work on the latest chapters, sasahara17 was going through a pretty rough patch IRL, and that adversely affected the fic and it's creative process. After a number of straws that broke the camel's back, he felt that he could no longer carry on with the story, and so he handed it over to the Committee, and gave us his blessings to carry on the story as we saw fit. We've spent the last several months planning out the story, and we're proceeding on at a good pace - we know our destination now, so what's left is the journey.

So what does this mean for the story? Let me assure you - we're not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The main meat of the Greatest Generation remains, albeit with a little more tweaking, a little further polish. We will be making our own story, yes - but it will be a story told from the shoulders of one who's gone ahead of us. (Yes, this means that the Indefatiguable omakes _will_ return. :p)

Thank you for waiting. Thank you for all your patience. Thank you for reading.

-WG


	2. Part 2: Pride of the Navy

**Disclaimer:** This is a non-profit work of fiction using characters from the Kantai Collection franchise, developed by Kadokawa Games and published by . Please support the official release.

 **Additional note 1:** Please be advised this work contains allusion to certain contemporary issues, namely war crimes perpetrated by Imperial Japan in World War 2. This work is meant to be for enjoyment, and no offense is meant. Also note that, as a fanfiction, many liberties were taken with Kantai Collection canon for the purposes of this story. That being said, please enjoy.

 **Additional note 2:** Please be advised sections of this chapter were authored by Whiskey Golf from the Spacebattles forum, who kindly allowed me to use his work as part of this fanfic.

* * *

 _While there were many ships that would be remembered by history for their significance, reputation or valor, there were a few that stood tall above all others. Ships with stories that elevated them beyond the mass of steel and oil of their physical forms, to the point where the mere mention of their names would trigger instant recognition. Such was their renown, they left a permanent mark on the nations they served and the nations they opposed._

 _The German battleship Bismarck might not have been the largest or most powerful battleship fielded in World War 2, but she forever engraved her place in history with the sinking of the battlecruiser HMS Hood and her subsequent last stand against the might of the Royal Navy. Such was her gallantry and courage in the face of certain defeat that her memory would endure in the dreams and imaginations of the British and Germans for generations._

 _Such was her fame that when she returned to battle as a ship girl of the Deutsche Marine, she became a rallying point for not just her own country, but for all of Europe._

 _Bismarck wasn't the only ship to leave such a cultural impact on mankind._

 _The return of these warships was more than just humanity leveling the playing field against the Abyssal fleet. It was a return of living legends… and Yvonne Swanson was well aware that in the Far East, there was one other battleship who rivaled Bismarck's fearsome reputation._

 _A battleship of such size, speed, and power, she was considered an enduring symbol of Japanese military power even to this day. It was believed that as long as she existed and continued to fight, her country could never fall or surrender… and when she **did** fall, it was in a blaze of glory that none would ever forget._

 _That ship was the Japanese Battleship Yamato._

* * *

 **Kantai Collection: The Greatest Generation**

Part 2: Pride of the Navy

* * *

Standing before the mirror in her quarters, Yvonne gave herself one last inspection, just to be sure she had everything right. The young woman in the mirror stared back at her, long blonde hair neatly tied in a bun. On the right breast of her khaki blouse, her nametag rested. On her left breast, just the meager three "I'm in the Navy now" ribbons. Last, but not least, her collar devices: the silver oak leaves of a full Commander.

Yvonne sighed. She felt like a little girl playing dress up. The digicam Navy Working Uniform was a lot simpler. Back stateside, the NWUs had become the uniform of the day, as a deliberate reinforcement of the fact that the Navy was at war. Even the Chief of Naval Operations wore NWUs in the Pentagon, only changing to his Service Dress Blues to report to the President or to brief Congress. The Service Khakis, formerly the day to day "office" uniform, had been quietly tucked away (if only for now).

Still, the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force wasn't the United States Navy, and Yvonne had resolved to herself that she'd try and fit in as best as she could with her hosts – she was, afterall, a visitor in their house. That meant service khakis, and all the other assorted uniform regulations that entailed.

Still, she couldn't help but crack a small smile at her mirrored image. There was something special about the khakis – probably because in the American psyche, the classic image of a USN officer at war was wearing service khakis and a leather G-1 aviator's jacket.

It was a little irrational, but Yvonne felt a bit comforted at that though. Any little thing that could help her in her mission, she'd take. Though the jacket was probably pushing it.

She glanced at the jacket hanging in the closet, virtually unchanged from the first leather jackets worn by naval aviators in the Pacific War, collected her things, and settled her khaki combination cap on her head. She slipped on her shoes, and took a deep breath.

Then she exhaled, and Commander Yvonne Swanson, intelligence officer of the United States Navy, set out to execute her mission.

* * *

"Good morning, Admiral, sir. Commander Swanson, reporting."

"Good morning, Commander. I trust you are well rested and settled in?" The Admiral returned her greeting. At his side was Nagato, waiting dutifully with a clipboard in hand for her Admiral's orders.

"Yes, sir. I wish to begin my investigation as soon as possible," replied Yvonne, remaining at attention.

Yvonne's orders were very peculiar, hence the need for her to come to Yokosuka Naval Base and work with the Japanese ship girls. Had it been a simple matter of analysis from third party reports and other action reports, she would not have needed to come to Japan, let alone Yokosuka. In fact, had her plan not been so specific, she could still have stayed over in the US section of Yokosuka, or commute from Atsugi.

However, as it stood, Yvonne's ideas required her to work with the Japanese ship girls in a very intimate capacity, and the lack of available personnel to actually carry out the mission meant she, an able and capable volunteer with ideas of her own, had been sent.

"Very well. To begin with, I will be assigning you to work with Destroyer Division 6," the Admiral said, approving of her work ethic. "They are our top expeditionary specialists who have just returned from one of their missions this morning. Their temperaments should help you get a feel as to what working with Kanmusu would be like before you move on to some of our more… 'colourful' personalities."

Well, that was an understatement if Yvonne had ever heard one.

"I understand, sir," Yvonne agreed, maintaining her poker face.

"I also believe you are familiar with Lieutenant Matsuda. He can help you in your endeavours," the Admiral added. "Additionally, as you are the highest ranking non-JMSDF officer on the base, and to assist you in your mission, we have also assigned a Kanmusu as your aide. She will act as both your personal liaison with us, as well as your assistant. Please use her as you see fit."

The wisdom behind this measure was easily apparent. While having a normal human adjutant would be certainly serviceable for Yvonne's purposes, having a ship girl be her assistant had many useful benefits. Given that Yvonne would be interacting with the local Kanmusu a great deal, it was only natural that a Kanmusu aide would act as her go between.

There was also the fact that her 'assistant' would be able to monitor Yvonne's movements and report back any findings, but it was something that Yvonne had expected. If the situations were reversed, if she had American ship girls of her own to spare, she'd do the same thing.

She might be a guest, and goodwill to the US Navy was at its highest as it had been in years, but at the end of the day she was still an outsider, an outsider who was also an intelligence spook no less, poking around in places where she might not be wanted.

"Be aware we have selected one of our Kanmusu who is mostly idle due to resource constraints rather than one of our frontline personnel, and as such she won't have much in the way of firsthand information about the Abyssal fleet you can use directly, or hard combat experience for that matter. She was only given the broad strokes of your mission before we assigned her to you, so you will have to brief her yourself. We have reserved a conference room for you to properly brief her on the specifics of your mission."

"Thank you, sir. That's very kind of you."

If a little unnecessary. Booking an entire conference room for just two people? She knew the base had a lot of spare room, but still!

The Admiral turned to Nagato, sharing a silent look with her. The battleship gave her admiral a nod, and her eyes flicked to the name on the clipboard, the name she'd already known would be there, having written it herself.

"Yamato, please enter."

Wait Yamato what.

The side door to the Admiral's office opened, and a beautiful young woman entered the room. Her appearance was entirely unique, an elaborate white red and black uniform that showed off too much skin and had a distinctively oriental flair. Her long wine-colored hair had been drawn into a ponytail, and it was perfectly accessorized by the blooming sakura flower that adorned it. She wore a 4-color armband on her left arm, patterned after the Z signal flag. The final, most noticeable piece of her ensemble was the gorget bearing the emblem of the golden chrysanthemum.

Alarm bells starting going off in Yvonne's head.

There was no doubt in Yvonne's mind who this girl was.

The young woman quickly walked up to Yvonne's side and saluted the Admiral.

"Japanese Battleship Yamato, reporting for duty as ordered, sir! Thank you for choosing me for this assignment. I will do my best!"

Oh. _Shit_.

"Very good," the Admiral nodded, before turning back to Yvonne with a satisfied smile. "Is this agreeable to you, Commander Swanson?"

 _Oh hell no!_

Yvonne's poker face hid her inner turmoil at being between a rock and a hard place. As much as she wanted to say no, for that feeling of anxiety was back in force stronger than ever, to do so would be to turn down an incredible honor and insult her hosts.

Yamato was the ship that bore the hopes and dreams of the Japanese people, the vessel that most exemplified their warrior ideal. To say anything but 'yes' to having the Yamato be her liaison would be the gravest insult Yvonne could give.

She had no choice.

"Yes, sir!" Yvonne said, allowing her awe at Yamato to mask her fear. "To have the battleship Yamato herself escort me is an incredible honor!"

 _I am so boned._

* * *

It was irrational. Yvonne knew that the war was long over, and that she had nothing to fear from the young woman, Japanese Battleship Yamato, who walked to her left, exactly four paces behind her. In fact, Yvonne felt ashamed and embarrassed by her weakness.

Out of her five friends, _she_ had been the one to be most vocal in espousing the idea of international cooperation between the ship girls of various nations. Yvonne had believed that, for the sake of the future, mankind needed to present a unified front against the Abyssal threat. Old grievances and rivalries couldn't be allowed to cloud their better judgment.

That was what she had told her comrades, at least.

But now that she was actually face to face with the Japanese ship girls, Yvonne was furious that she couldn't get over her uneasiness at their presence.

She had to keep fighting the urge to put distance between herself and Yamato. It made her feel like the biggest hypocrite to ever exist, especially so since Yamato, a person who had every reason to hate the United States, didn't seem to have _any_ of the hang ups she did.

"May I ask where we are going, Commander Swanson?" Yamato queried.

"The Admiral asked me to fill you in on what we're going to do, so I'm heading to the empty conference room the Admiral booked earlier to do just that."

In hindsight, Yamato's importance probably was what made the Admiral decide on giving them an entire room. From what she'd read from the history books, for all of the battleship _Yamato_ 's capabilities, she was treated like a porcelain doll by the Japanese Navy and hardly ever had to rough it out. As a ship girl, it seemed that this Yamato was more of the same.

It went without saying that Yvonne disapproved.

Alas, this was something the Admiral had done, and with how important Yamato was to the Japanese, Yvonne had to watch herself to avoid offending anyone.

Japanese Battleship Yamato… how the hell had THIS happened?

The pair had soon located the vacant room, and they settled in on opposite sides of a mahogany table. Having already anticipated the need to brief her new assistant, Yvonne had brought a copy of her orders and the supporting documentation with her.

"So how much did the Admiral tell you?" Yvonne asked, once she had provided the copy to Yamato, which the battleship promised to read on her own time after the briefing.

"Only the broad outline," Yamato replied, with her demure, shy voice. "I, Yamato, was informed that your plan involved interviewing our frontline Kanmusu about their experiences with the Abyssals."

Curiously, Yamato's tone and her use of 'frontline Kanmusu' seemed to indicate she didn't consider herself one of them. This, combined, with the Admiral's earlier introduction, confirmed Yvonne's suspicions about that, like her historical counterpart, Yamato didn't get out very much.

"And that's all you know?" Yvonne said, keeping her thoughts to herself.

"Regretfully, I do not. Yamato was chosen for this position at the last minute."

"That's not a problem," Yvonne nodded. "I'll fill you in on the details then."

The mission's objective was simple: understand the nature of the Abyssal fleet, where they came from and, if possible, find insight on how they could be defeated.

This was easier said than done, of course: with how long the war had gone on, Yvonne would not be the first to try. However, she aimed to be the first to succeed.

Yvonne had gone through every known report and recording of or documentation of the Abyssals. It was in these documents that she noticed a startling trend, a trend that she felt had been the reason that every single one of these prior attempts at understanding the Abyssals had failed before.

"Stage one will be to profile _and_ interview each and every single Kanmusu on this base," Yvonne stated. "I've spent the better part of the last six months reading through everything about Abyssals, and, if I'm being honest, half of them're complete bullshit and not worth the paper they're written on. I want first-hand accounts from the people who've physically seen and beaten these things, to help me verify what's accurate and what's not."

Indeed, part of the reason there hadn't been any progress in understanding the Abyssal fleet was that none of the experts could agree upon anything. Although there were plenty of armchair analysts who had weighed in on the matter, it wasn't entirely their fault.

The findings of any study were only as good as the evidence it was based on, and with the Abyssals it was hard to get such information.

Getting accurate data about the Abyssal fleet was difficult, thanks to the confusion of the early days of the war. With ships getting sunk left and right, people dying by the droves, rampant uncontrolled panic and hysteria, flotillas being destroyed before they even knew they were under attack, the whole refugee crisis… it was impossible to tell what was fact and what was the product of people in a blind panic.

By the time the ship girls had appeared and things had calmed down, the information repositories used by the intelligence services were so filled with reports of dubious accuracy that the entire process had simply ground to a halt while they got to actually organizing things. All the crap would eventually be sorted out, verified and discarded, but that might take months, even years.

That wasn't good or soon enough. Yvonne had decided to cut out the middle man and get that information herself, from the best sources she could think of.

"I want to identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities. I want to identify the tactics they use and how we could use that to our advantage," Yvonne continued. "More than that, I want to know how sentient each type of Abyssal is, and if there's any semblance of intelligence in any of them or if they're just acting on some kind of instinct. I want to know if there are any individual commanders or leaders that remain at large, or if there are any of them that act differently from the rest."

"There are many Abyssals that seem to act as flagships for their fleets," Yamato noted.

"Maybe, but each and every one of those are often surrounded by escorts and are part of a battlegroup. I'm looking for something smaller, at a flotilla level," Yvonne said. "Next, I need to know the capabilities and prior combat records of each ship girl on this base in _detail_. I need to get a feel of their personalities. I want to know how each girl will react to danger _and_ how well they can function under extreme pressure."

"Couldn't you just read a report? We have extensive physiological and psychological reports for you to follow," Yamato queried, her tone clearly showing she had asked this less to question Yvonne's judgment, and more to understand the intelligence officer's reasoning.

It seemed like the battleship had caught on.

"Reports are one thing, but I'm looking for very specific people with very specific skillsets and mindsets. I need people who go _looking_ for danger," Yvonne replied. "These interviews are to identify potential targets and candidates for the mission I came here to do."

"And that mission is?" Yamato asked. The battleship was leaning forward in her seat, her eyes intent. It was clear she'd already figured out the answer. Yvonne was still happy to give her that confirmation.

"We figure out where they're going to be, then set up a trap to capture one of those Abyssal fuckers," Yvonne grinned. "Then we move onto stage two: interrogate the shit out of her."

* * *

Yvonne hadn't explained much after that. The following stages of her mission had been sensitive and classified by order of Admiral Briggs himself. It was on a strictly need to know basis, so there wasn't much else she could say to Yamato, especially about the part on how Yvonne was confident she'd be able to set a trap for her intended quarry.

Yvonne did open up for a short Q & A session to allow Yamato to ask anything else she was unsure of, but the shy young Japanese woman turned down the opportunity, insisting she was satisfied by the explanation given so far.

"Our first order of business will be to meet with Destroyer Division 6. "The Admiral informed me that they just returned from a mission, so their latest outing should be fresh in their minds."

"Ah, the Akatsuki sisters. I see. Interacting with them should give you some experience with dealing with us Kanmusu. The Admiral's insight is great as usual," Yamato nodded in agreement as she rose from her seat. "Very well, Commander Swanson. Shall I lead you to them?"

"Not just yet," Yvonne said, motioning for Yamato to sit back down.

"Commander Swanson?"

"Before we go, I have a few questions for you," Yvonne stated bluntly.

"I understand. As your assigned aide, I, Yamato, will attend to your needs as required. What do your require of me?" Yamato replied formally. It appeared that the battleship hadn't quite understood what Yvonne was getting at.

She decided to make things a little more explicit.

"Look. You misunderstand, Yamato. I mean I have questions for _you_." Yvonne could almost see the lightbulb going on over Yamato's head as she realized what Yvonne meant.

It was almost comical to see Yamato, the pride of the Japanese Navy, go beet red with embarrassment as she comprehended what Yvonne was getting at.

"I… I see. Very well. I, Yamato, will answer your questions to the best of my ability." Yamato fidgeted in place, wringing her hands nervously. Yvonne would have laughed at the sight if that persistent feeling, the feeling of knowing that a Japanese big gun battleship was _right next to her_ , hadn't also been keeping _her_ on edge.

 _That_ feeling was one of the reasons why Yvonne wanted to have this little chat.

"Look, you don't have to be so formal around me. We're going to be working together for the foreseeable future, so it's important we set some ground rules and get some stuff out of the way first," Yvonne spoke bluntly. Seeing Yamato nod in agreement, Yvonne continued, "I don't mean any offense so apologies in advance if I do, but my first question is pretty simple: are you okay with working with a foreign officer?"

"What? O-Of course I am!"

"I heard that there were some of you ship girls that weren't too happy with an American being on the base. I just want to make sure there won't be problems between the two of us down the line."

After all, with Yvonne having to wrestle with her own problems, if Yamato had more of the same there was a non-zero chance the two of them could be heading for some turbulent waters. If that happened, Yvonne knew their performance would be negatively affected.

"There won't! I, Yamato, will not dishonour the name of the Japanese Navy by being discourteous to an officer of a foreign Navy. You have my word," Yamato insisted.

"Good. I just wanted to get that out of the way." Yvonne couldn't be sure of the sincerity of Yamato's statement, but it seemed that was the best answer she was going to get for now. "Okay, the next order of business is something that I probably should have dealt with earlier: the chain of command."

"Chain of command? I'm not quite sure I follow." Yamato tilted her head in confusion. "I am to act as your assistant and liaison, won't I? That shouldn't be a problem then."

Well that did answer one of her major concerns, but there was more to it than that.

"Okay, that's one thing out of the way. Now, I'm actually concerned about how you and the other ship girls fit into it," Yvonne clarified. "Aside from Nagato who's the Admiral's secretary ship, I'm not sure on how your ship girls have organized yourselves in relation to the regular military. I just want to be sure I don't step on any toes I'm not supposed to."

Yvonne felt that this was a pretty valid concern, especially since Yamato of all people had been assigned to her as an assistant.

To Yvonne's knowledge, the US Navy's policy was that in the event of a ship girl returning to active duty, she would be commissioned into the US Navy with actual rank. The Navy had intended this to be standard operational protocol with their ship girls, even to the point of preparing a truncated OCS program, before their whole project had been unexpectedly derailed.

It was more than just a courtesy rank; it would help members of the Navy, both ship girls and humans, understand where their positions were in the Navy proper, and make their positions in the chain of command clear to everyone involved.

In theory, under this policy, any US Navy ship girl would carry the same responsibilities and be afforded the same respect of any officer of that same rank.

Not everyone had adopted the same system, of course. The concept of ship girls was so unusual that there was no standardized system among mankind's navies for dealing with them.

Yvonne had heard Russians had adopted a similar approach to the Americans, albeit they promoted their ship girls based on skill and performance, both in battle and out of it, while the British, Germans and French had decided seniority among the ships was dictated by tonnage and size, with a few special exceptions.

She'd even heard that HMS Hood, leader of a quick reaction force that was quickly becoming analogous to a ship girl version of the SAS, even had a _human_ aide of her own.

Yvonne had thought the Japanese had adopted something along similar lines to the Europeans, and had been blindsided when Yamato had been assigned as _her_ assistant… she, a 'mere' O-5 from a visiting service. Clearly she had been mistaken. Yvonne needed to know the lay of the land, and fast.

"I see. Do not worry, Commander. Kanmusu have been ordered to obey human personnel, so you won't have to worry about offending any superior officers: even Nagato would have to defer to you, as long as your orders don't conflict with her ability to carry out those set by the Admiral. As long as it is within reason, we will try to accommodate you as best we can," Yamato said dutifully.

"Well, that's good to know." Yvonne inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Now she didn't have to worry about accidentally being like that one idiot in Portsmouth who thought he could order Hood around while she was visiting. Yvonne had had a good laugh at that when she'd heard about what happened to the poor bastard, but in no way did she want to repeat that mistake.

"As for seniority amongst Kanmusu, in theory we are all equal with each other, except for the 'flagship' of that specific unit, who is above her flotilla mates," Yamato concluded with a smile. "It is actually very simple compared to how some other nations have set up their own forces. You will not take long to familiarize yourself with it."

"I see. Thank you for clarifying that with me. Now, final question, and this one is just for my own curiosity. How did you end up with me anyway?" Yvonne asked. "I mean, you're the _Yamato_. You're the pride of the Japanese Navy. I'm a foreign officer, from the _United States_ , and they made _you_ my _assistant_. I'm sorry about being suspicious, but that feels a little weird since I'm not even an admiral. What happened?"

Yvonne wondered if this was too touchy, but she needed to know.

Yamato had thrown her for a loop. Yamato was the pinnacle of the military might of the Imperial Japanese Navy, one of the most prideful and controversial military forces to ever exist. The danger of having what should have been the flag bearer of the Japanese Navy take a job that could be so easily done by someone less prominent was one Yvonne couldn't ignore.

While she was thankful that the battleship seemed willing to work with her, there was a potential political time bomb that had just been handed to Yvonne, and she wanted to know why.

Yamato had once again seemed to retreat back into herself, fidgeting in her seat as an internal war played out on her pretty features.

"I… I… I am sorry Commander. Regretfully, that is one question I, Yamato, do not wish to answer."

Damn, that was what Yvonne was afraid of.

"It's fine. I think that question was overstepping my bounds anyway." Yvonne sighed, her unease deepening. Chances were, something of note had happened. Something pretty bad, and likely career-ending, given she was looking at a battleship who'd been shitcanned and beached, in a time when every capital ship was seeing combat, when every shipgirl was going into harm's way.

Brilliant.

Just what Yvonne needed to start her mission over in Yokosuka.

* * *

As Yamato promised, she led Yvonne towards where she would meet Destroyer Division 6. The pair had made their way out of the HQ building towards one of the main ship girl dormitories, as the Akatsuki sisters were on a break after having just finished their most recent expeditionary missions.

While Yamato admitted she was not certain that they were there, chances were that someone who was there would know where they had gone.

"The four of them are very close," Yamato explained on the way towards the dormitory, twirling the parasol she had collected from the front of the main office building on her shoulder. "They practically go everywhere with each other. If you find one, the others will not be far away."

"So you Kanmusu all live together in this building?" Yvonne asked, when they had arrived outside of the dormitory proper.

"Not all of us. There is a separate dormitory next to this one for the cruisers, and there are plans to build a third," Yamato supplied. "And of course, as you are aware, the battleships stay in the officers' quarters. There are also similar facilities in our other operational bases like Sasebo and Kure for those Kanmusu stationed there."

"Hm, we might have to do a bit of travelling in the future then, if we can't find what we need here."

An entire building dedicated to housing ship girls. The thought of something like this existing blew Yvonne's mind. The Japanese had over a hundred and fifty of them, and almost all of them lived in buildings like these.

It represented what Yvonne hoped would eventually happen with the United States Navy, but at the same time caused her to feel anxiety, since she had never experienced something like this before.

"Well, shall we go in?" Yvonne said, taking the initiative to forcefully quench her own anxiety.

"Right this way, Commander Swanson."

Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Yvonne followed in after Yamato.

Hopefully there wouldn't be a problem.

* * *

"What is _SHE_ doing here?"

There was a problem.

"Zuikaku, please. Commander Swanson is here on official business," Yamato pleaded towards the twin tailed spitfire that they'd encountered in the main entrance to the dormitory. "She's here to see Ataksuki and her sisters."

"Why? They're off duty and resting after having that exhausting mission, and this _American_ wants to _bother_ them?" Zuikaku folded her arms stubbornly and glared at Yvonne. "Give me one good reason why I should let you see them. One. Reason."

The girl that had barred their way was the Shoukaku-class aircraft carrier Zuikaku, apparently a feisty young woman with a serious attitude problem. The grey haired girl was wearing what appeared to be a shortened miko uniform and was carrying a bow and arrow. Apparently, she had been on her way out of the dormitory for practice when Yvonne and Yamato had entered.

Zuikaku had immediately taken exception to Yvonne's presence, and had made that opinion known.

Loudly.

So much for that promise about Japanese ship girls bending over backwards to accommodate the foreign officer.

"Please, Zuikaku. You're embarrassing us." Yamato seemed fully aware of the situation as she shot guilty, apologetic looks towards Yvonne. The battleship had boasted to Yvonne that her comrades would be helpful just moments ago, and now Zuikaku was living proof that this was not the case. "Commander Swanson is here to help."

"Yeah? Help you say?" Zuikaku pushed past Yamato, something that Yvonne noted with interest, and walked right into Yvonne's face. "Hey you. You speak Japanese?"

"Not as fluent as I would have liked, but I do," Yvonne replied smoothly.

"Good. So you want to help? You can help by telling me where the _hell_ are our _reinforcements are!_ " Zuikaku demanded angrily, her eyes ablaze with righteous anger, "We've been fighting this entire war for months now, and you guys haven't lifted a finger to help. What, do the Japanese have to win back the entire Pacific on our own? What the hell are you people sitting on your asses for?"

"Zuikaku!"

"It's fine, Yamato. I'll handle this," Yvonne replied without breaking eye contact with the other carrier. "Go into the dormitory and find Destroyer Division 6. We're wasting time here."

"I… I will do so, Commander Swanson. My apologies." Yamato, awed by Yvonne's confidence at staring down an angry aircraft carrier, turned to leave and carry out what was asked of her.

"Pretty confident for a human, Yank," Zuikaku said.

"You don't know the half of it."

Yvonne would have chuckled and thanked the other girl if she could. Zuikaku had just made a critical mistake, and it had been to Yvonne's benefit.

Yvonne _had_ been having the jitters up til now. Getting assigned Yamato as an assistant, entering a dormitory full of other ship girls when she was more used to being around humans, all of this had understandably caused Yvonne to become nervous because she was outside of her comfort zone. It had gotten to the point where Yvonne was beginning to worry that it might affect her performance.

Zuikaku didn't know it, but she'd helped immensely… because she'd pushed Yvonne right back into familiar waters.

If there was one thing the Yvonne was very familiar with, it was how to respond when under attack by the enemy, and it helped that, as a carrier at such close range, Zuikaku wasn't nearly as intimidating as Nagato, Kongou or Yamato was. Suddenly that nervous feeling was gone, and all was right with the world.

"The United States Navy is in the process of recovering after our losses. As such, we are incapable of fielding ship girls of our own at present," Yvonne stated clearly and slowly. "You know the story. It won't change just because you want it to."

"Bullshit!"

"Two hundred and fifty thousand funerals say otherwise," Yvonne stated bluntly.

While she didn't like hiding behind the deaths of her countrymen to keep up the grand lie, it was something that she had gotten used to if she was to uphold her standing orders.

It was also a tried and true method at deterring people from further questioning, since most decent people stopped there out of respect for the fallen.

"Yeah, so what? We Japanese lost people too, and we're still fighting."

And apparently Zuikaku wasn't most people.

"Okay, Yankee Doodle. It's been months. Why haven't you people gotten your shit together? Do you have any idea how big this damn ocean is?" Zuikaku growled as she moved right into Yvonne's face, "We've been busting out asses been protecting _your_ convoys, _your_ ships and _your_ ports as well as our own. We're spread thin enough as it is, and you expect us to run across the Pacific to pick up your slack? What happened to the strongest navy on the planet, huh?"

Well _excuse_ the United States Navy for not being able to fight after losing nine carriers and their air wings, seventy surface combatants, a good number of fast-attack subs, and oh yeah, _a few ballistic missile submarines_. Of course, Yvonne didn't say that aloud, and used a bit more tact.

"The US military as a whole is still providing assistance in the form of logistical support and air cover provided by the US Air Force. Surely you have benefited from protection offered by our surface installations and use of drone strikes? We are doing everything we can."

Despite the decimation of the Navy, the United States was still militarily relevant. The US Army's surface to surface missile batteries and helicopter gunships could strike at any Abyssal that dared approach American shores, while the Air Force still had plenty of fighters, bombers and drones, and was getting a crash course in antishipping missions from survivors of the Navy's strike and maritime patrol communities. It was only further out to sea, where merchant convoys important for international trade and commerce needed to venture, where these advantages were nullified.

The United States was still very much a relevant player in the war, just not their Navy, and Yvonne wanted to remind Zuikaku of that.

"Drone strikes are useful on the odd occasion, I'll give you that, but we need to win the war! We can't do that if we're on the defensive all the time," Zuikaku insisted. "I mean, damn it, just the other month Shoukaku-nee and I had to go _all_ the way around the Pacific to your 'San Fansciso' because you don't have any girls of your own. We have a _rotation_ for that. What the hell?"

Okay… it _was_ a little ridiculous, but Yvonne couldn't actually say her opinion out loud either. Because the US Navy couldn't field their own ship girls, it had been agreed that a single task group of Japanese ship girls would be stationed at Naval Base San Diego in case they were ever needed, a small goodwill force offered by the Japanese in exchange for America's continued support.

Of course, with the amount of anti-Abyssal weaponry the United States Army had set up lining the coast since the appearance of the ship girls, any Abyssal fleet wandering even close to the coast would be blown to kingdom come, long before those girls would be needed. Other than escorting convoys up north towards Canada and helping deter small Abyssal raids, the garrison there didn't actually get involved in the fierce fighting that characterized the East Asian campaign.

It did offer peace of mind to the population at having them there, especially after Norfolk and Pearl, so Yvonne had thought it was worth it: she just hadn't considered that the Japanese ship girls would be resentful over that, although it was obvious now in hindsight.

Although…

"You do realize that overseas assignments are part and parcel of being in a _Navy_ right?" Yvonne couldn't help but say mischievously. "Sail the seven seas, see the world, meet interesting people... don't you guys have any of that on your recruitment posters?"

"I'm just fine with staying in Japan, thank you very much!"

"What, you don't what a yank boyfriend? I thought Japanese girls loved the stereotypical surfer dude: tall, blonde and musclebound, and well, you look like the type that would go for that."

Zuikaku had gone beet red, eye irises having shrunk into pin pricks and her whole body quivering with embarrassment. The ashen haired girl's mouth was moving, trying to form coherent sentences, but the only sound that came out was a high pitched whistling noise like a boiler.

"You mean you don't? Wow, you don't know to enjoy an overseas posting? Did you stay in your bunk all day or something? You did, didn't you?" Yvonne said with a mock gasp, trying to milk this for all it was worth, "Oh my _god_ , you have no idea what you are missing out on! Listen girl, this is an order from a superior officer. I am going to take you out tonight for a pub crawl and we are going to pick up _so_ many hot g-"

Zuikaku lost it.

"P-P-P-P-PERVERT!" Zuikaku screeched, leaping backwards away from Yvonne and making for the exit as fast as her legs could carry her. "THE AMERICAN IS A DEVIANT! DEVIANT I SAY! **DEVIANT**!"

Yvonne watched the other girl run like the proverbial bat out of hell with the biggest shit eating grin she could muster.

Chances were, Yvonne was going to catch hell for this later, but right now?

 _So_ worth it.

* * *

"I, Yamato, offer my sincere apologies, Commander Swanson. I wasn't able to stop Zuikaku from her unseemly behaviour," Yamato apologized profusely, bowing all the while. "Please forgive us being untoward you."

"It's fine, Yamato. I dealt with it," Yvonne replied.

She of course didn't add that she handled the problem by effectively teasing Zuikaku into full retreat, but knowing the military grapevine people were probably going to talk sooner or later.

Still, Yvonne wondered how the Admiral would approach this, since Yvonne had _technically_ been the aggrieved party and Zuikaku the aggressor. They seemed really touchy about making the foreigner welcome for some reason, so maybe she would get away scot free. Briggs would have given Yvonne a right dressing down for pulling something like that!

 _SO_ worth it, though.

"Anyway, enough about that." Yvonne turned to address the people that Yamato had returned with. Given the informal environment that was the small common room they were now meeting in, Yvonne decided to forgo a salute and instead opted for a more informal handshake instead.

"It is a pleasure to meet you again, Lieutenant."

"The pleasure is mine, Commander." Lieutenant Satoshi Matsuda, now dressed in his own undress whites, took her hand with a strong confident handshake. Coincidentally, he had been with the Akatsuki sisters, congratulating them for a job well done when Yamato had found them, and had decided to tag along. "I see you didn't waste any time getting down to business."

"Time is precious," Yvonne replied before turning to the four young girls that were huddled together on the sofa across from her chair, "And these must be the Ataksuki sisters of Destroyer Division 6. My name is Commander Yvonne Swanson. It's nice to meet you."

When Yvonne had seen the four girls, all looking like they hadn't even reached their pre-teens, she had been very surprised at their youth.

She had no idea that ship girls could even be that young. These girls looked and acted like they were twelve. No wonder why many people were reluctant to send ship girls into battle: even Yvonne was feeling uncomfortable with the mere thought of sending these youngsters to fight a war!

This thought was thankfully balanced with that now annoying sensation she had again around unfamiliar ship girls. While Yvonne was still feeling on edge at being so close to a group of destroyers, the fact they were a bunch of kids, and the recent victory she had over Zuikaku, had allowed Yvonne to shunt those unwanted feelings to where they couldn't bother her.

"It is nice to meet you too, Miss Swanson," the girl with long dark hair and an adorable black cap on her head greeted formally. It seemed that she was the leader of their crew. "I'm first of the special type-III destroyers, Akatsuki."

"Hibiki, of the same class. _Zdravstvuyte_ ," the stoic faced white haired girl beside Akatsuki said. Russian? Hm, must be something she picked up after the war.

"Ikazuchi! Good t' meet 'cha!" The excitable one followed. "Not 'Kaminari'! Make sure you get my name right, 'kay?"

"I'm Inazuma. Pleased to meet you, nano-desu." The final member, who looked very similar to her sister Ikazuchi, gave a polite bow.

Yvonne wondered what that 'nano-desu' at the end of her sentence meant; her command of the language wasn't good enough to help her in that regard. She'd have to ask Yamato about it later. It didn't seem to be rude though…

"There's no need to be so formal. You girls _are_ supposed to be on a break now," Yvonne said with a wave of her hand. "Thank you for taking the time to meet me."

"It was no trouble at all, Miss Swanson. We are 'ladies' of the Japanese Navy after all," Akatsuki insisted, puffing out her chest with childish pride.

"I'm sure you are," Yvonne smiled indulgently. What a cute kid!

"So you have questions for us? Ask away!" Akatsuki beamed, "We'll show you how good we are at doing 'adult lady' jobs for Admiral Matsuda here, even at night!"

Yvonne, Matsuda and Yamato all started choking while trying to hold down the sudden bout of laughter, or in Matsuda's case, sheer unbridled embarrassment. The other three Akatsuki girls simply looked at their lead ship like she'd grown a second head.

"Akatsuki, I don't think that's a good way you're supposed you're supposed to phrase it, nano-desu!" Inazuma said tactfully.

"Sis, you do know that say'n things like that is going to make Admiral Masuda look like a criminal, ya'know?" Ikazuchi said _un_ -tactfully. From where he was sitting, Lieutenant Matsuda looked like he was having an aneurysm and a heart attack at the same time.

Realizing her mistake, Akatsuki tried back pedalling.

"I-It was a mistake. I meant that the four of us are perfect ladies that can do night battles! Like officers and gentle… gentle…"

"Gentlewomen, nanodesu."

"That's right! Gentlewomen! We are ladies and gentlewomen!" Akatsuki, now beet red in the face and radiating pure shame, jabbed a finger at Yvonne and tried looking as confident as she could, "So don't you worry, _American_! You have come to the right place, for there is no group more ref… refin… 'elephant' as Destroyer Division 6!"

Akatsuki's declaration was followed with a short period of silence as the other people around the table simply stared at her. Inazuma and Ikazuchi seemed frozen with their mouths hanging open. Matsuda seemed on the verge of dying. Yamato was standing shock still at the side of Yvonne's chair with eyes wide as saucers, clearly unsure how to react….

And Yvonne?

She held out for five seconds, and then couldn't take it anymore.

"…Bwa-ha-ha-ha-hahahahaha! Jesus, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Jesus Christ! Can't breathe, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Yvonne roared, beating the arm rests of her chair while trying desperately to regain her composure. It was hopeless. Despite all of the Yvonne's discipline, there was absolutely no way _anyone_ could hear that and still manage to keep a straight face.

" _Bozhe moi_ …" Hibiki dropped her face into her hands and groaned.

Then Yvonne fell off the chair and kept laughing.

"Someone sink me now," Akatsuki muttered as she collapsed back down onto the sofa.

* * *

Having thoroughly humiliated herself, it had been decided on the spot that the interview should be postponed until such time that Akatsuki felt like she could face Yvonne again.

Probably not anytime soon, that's for sure.

"I am very sorry about all this! This is so disgraceful to allow a member of a visiting Navy see such shameful acts!" Yamato kept bowing to Yvonne.

"Seriously, I _told_ you to stop doing that. _You_ didn't physically put Akatsuki's foot in her mouth." Yvonne told Yamato, wiping the tears out of her eyes.

It appeared that poor Yamato had taken the two incidents thus far as a personal failing on her part to leave a good impression of the Japanese Navy on their guest. The poor girl was practically beside herself with embarrassment, even more so than Matsuda who had recovered from his own brush with humiliation.

Yvonne hoped that she wasn't going to make a habit of embarrassing the Japanese like this. Zuikaku had it coming, but poor Akatsuki had practically sailed right into a minefield of her own laying without Yvonne lifting a finger. If this kept happening, Yvonne's little trip was going to do wonders for future USN - JMSDF relations!

"Are those four always like this?" Yvonne asked Matsuda, once the four Akatsuki sisters had filed out of the room, the others escorting a crying Akatsuki back to their room in what had to be the most diabetes inducing scene Yvonne had ever been witness to.

"You have _no_ idea," Matsuda replied as he wiped the sweat off his face from the nasty shock with a handkerchief. "Those four are basically kindergarteners that I have to babysit on a daily basis. Well, Hibiki not so much, but the other three? Not the kinda thing I expected to be doing when I took my commission."

"No shit."

"I am so sorry, Admiral Matsuda, Commander Swanson. I have brought shame upon the Japanese Navy!" Yamato continued bowing. Yvonne rolled her eyes.

"Uh, I thought I told you…"

"Yamato, stop. That's an order," Matsuda said sharply at Yamato.

Yamato stopped. She was still sniffling, but otherwise she had ceased apologizing. Yvonne stared at Matsuda with wide, respectful eyes.

"There you go. Sometimes you have to be a little firm and put your foot down," Matsuda explained with a sigh. "I know it doesn't feel good to be an ass, but that's what being an officer is about: leading and discipline. You don't look like you're used to having subordinates, or went down a conventional command track."

"No, I didn't. I was an intelligence analyst that worked with a rear echelon team. The promotion was pretty unexpected, to put it mildly," Yvonne said. "I'm guessing you're a line officer?"

"Served on the Aegis destroyer _Mirai_ for two months before they yanked me out for the Kanmusu program," Matsuda said with some regret. "Don't get me wrong, I know I'm doing good work in my new job, but it's always been my dream to be the Captain of a warship like my old man, y'know?"

"Oh yeah, you did mention something like that yesterday."

Yvonne knew of the guided missile destroyer _Mirai_ , hull number DDG-182. She was the lead ship of the relatively new _Mirai_ -class Aegis destroyers, developed off the American Flight IIIA _Arleigh Burke_ -class and taking cues from the venerable _Kongo_ and _Atago-_ class destroyers (most prominently, the additional two decks to accommodate flagship functions). The _Mirai_ had come into prominence shortly after the Abyssal fleet had appeared, as Japan's answer to the new threat.

Arguably _the_ most powerful guided missile destroyer class still in service, especially now that the Flight II _Zumwalts_ were languishing at the bottom of the ocean, _Mirai_ was ultimately hampered by the inherent limitations of being a conventional ship fighting an unconventional adversary.

Nevertheless, as far as the modern Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force went, she was the pride of their fleet. No wonder Matsuda had some residual regret at being pulled off. That was a dream posting if Yvonne ever saw one.

"She's part of the support flotilla assigned here right?" Yvonne recalled that Matsuda had mentioned that both the _Izumo_ and the _Mirai_ were assigned to Yokosuka as conventional support vessels for the Kanmusu fleet yesterday. "You probably get to see her very often."

"Yeah. The Admiral uses the _Mirai_ as a mobile command post now. I rarely get to actually _be_ on her anymore, though," Matsuda confirmed. "She's outfitted as a fleet flagship, has the best radar in the fleet, a turret mounted railgun that can punch through damn near anything, and enough modified Anti-Abyssal missiles to sink a small fleet on her own. It's a pity that she's so damned hard and _expensive_ to rearm, or we would have had this war in the bag."

"I hear you. Our _Zumwalts_ would have kicked some serious ass if the railguns didn't keep overheating in the middle of a fight," Yvonne agreed.

Killing the Abyssals wasn't a problem. It was killing them cost effectively and keeping up with the rate of attrition that was what eventually wore the US Navy down. A railgun could kill an Abyssal easily, but there was never _only_ one Abyssal. Sure, the Navy had plenty of missiles, but firing a few dozen millions of dollars worth of missiles to kill a single Ro-Class destroyer was _not_ how you won wars, and since the Abyssals had more bodies than the Navy had shells and missiles, well…

Stalin said it best: quantity had a quality of its own.

"Still, for something the public thinks of as obsolete, she's doing a damned fine job at helping us out," Matsuda said nostalgically, with more than a little pride in his old ship. "Honestly, she might not be able to fight as well as we'd planned, but as a mobile command centre she's second to none. Saves the girls having to go out all the way to the mission area on their own, you know?"

"I agree. It would really suck to have to go out there in the rain," Yvonne noted thoughtfully.

Traveling in the comfort of another ship did have its advantages, especially if it helped to keep ship girls well rested and supplied before needing to fight. "Plenty of ways to make a conventional warship useful even though she's been overshadowed by the Kanmusu."

"Yep, _Mirai's_ like our own mobile hotel. Hell, she can even dish it out if push really comes to shove. Would be nice to meet a Kanmusu version of her, don't you think? That girl won't let anything keep her down!" Matsuda laughed as he got up from his chair. "Anyway, I'd better go see to the girls. Akatsuki's probably bawling her eyes out over embarrassing herself that badly."

"Hey, no problem. Like I said, it's me who should be thanking you guys for coming. Tell her I won't hold it against her, alright?"

"Will do. Take care, Commander."

Matsuda and Yvonne's shook hands once more before the young man turned back to attend to his duties. "Well, that was an enlightening talk."

"…not a hotel."

"Hm? You said something, Yama…to?"

Yvonne turned to face her assistant and was shocked to see the battleship in dire straits. Yamato had been so quiet and reserved, Matsuda and Yvonne had completely forgotten about the battleship. Now that she was looking at her, Yvonne wondered how she'd manage to miss all this.

The poor girl seemed like on the verge of tears, her shoulders shaking and her hands around her parasol in a white knuckled grip. Something was terribly wrong.

"Yamato? What happened?"

"I… I apologize for my unseemly appearance, Commander." The pride of the Japanese Navy sniffled, clearly attempting to put on a brave face and failing spectacularly. "I, Yamato, will be alright in a moment. Just some dust in my eye, that's all. Where… where do you want to head to next?"

This time, the watery smile Yamato gave Yvonne teetered on the edge of despair.

…fuck it.

* * *

"Commander?" Yamato exclaimed as Yvonne bodily shoved both herself and the battleship into the vacant dormitory store room and locked the door behind her. "Commander, what are you doing?!"

"Getting answers," Yvonne said, rummaging around the shelves to find something she could use to sit on. She eventually found two spare folding chairs and set them up facing each other in the middle of the room. Then she forcefully sat Yamato down on the chair across from her.

The lighting in the room wasn't very good, as Yvonne had opted to keep the ceiling light off and thus only had the small window at the far end of the room as a light source. However, Yvonne wasn't here to make a presentation. She was here to talk.

So talk she did.

"Okay, Yamato. You give me a straight answer, right here and right now." Yvonne said as she crossed her legs and folded her arms, staring down the battleship sternly. "There's clearly something bugging you, and I need to know what it is."

"There is nothing bothering me," Yamato insisted weakly, unable to meet Yvonne's eyes even in this dim lighting.

"And _everything_ that has happened since we left the headquarters building has told me that you're lying to me right now," Yvonne challenged firmly. "If there is something that I have done that has offended you, I need to know what it is. _Immediately_."

"You? Offend? What, NO! C-C-Commander Swanson, it is my failing. Not yours! You are not at fault!" Yamato quickly said waving her arms about in a panicked manner.

"Really? Then what is _your_ problem? Tell me here. Tell me now, sailor."

"I'd… I would rather not say."

"I'm _making_ it an order. You tell me what it is or I'm going straight to the Admiral's office to ask for a new assistant, because clearly this is not working out."

"What? _Why?_ " The horror and dismay on Yamato's face almost made Yvonne want to turn back and question just what she was doing.

Yvonne was going on an all-out verbal assault on the battleship Yamato. She was in a Japanese Naval base, surrounded by Japanese ship girls, many of whom didn't like her… and she was making the pride of their navy _absolutely miserable_.

If that wasn't a recipe for a lynch mob, Yvonne didn't know what would be!

However, if there was one thing Yvonne wasn't good at, it was backing down on an issue that needed to be forced, no matter the consequences.

This was an issue that most definitely needed to be forced.

"It's affecting your performance!" Yvonne jabbed a finger into Yamato's chest. "I've been with you for less than three hours, and you're a sobbing mess. Something's wrong and it needs to be fixed. Get a hold of yourself, woman! How am I supposed to work _with_ you if you fall to pieces like this? I don't know what the hell's going on in that head of yours, I don't know what's happened before this, but you're **_the_** _**Yamato**_. You should be _better_ than this!"

Yamato stared at Yvonne with wide eyes and an open mouth, stunned speechless by Yvonne's rant, unable to even form a response.

"Start talking, or I start walking to the Admiral's office."

Yvonne delivered her final ultimatum, folding her arms back up and leaning back into her seat, as she waited for Yamato to come to a decision. Minutes passed as Yamato looked down at her hands, her face contorted with anguish as she wrestled with her own emotions. Anger, fear, hurt, shame, loathing, all played out on the young woman's features… but it seemed like she couldn't come to a decision.

If that was the case, Yvonne would make one for her.

"Okay. If that's the way you want it, I'm going," Yvonne declared as she rose from her seat and turned for the door… only to feel a tug on the sleeve of her uniform as she did so.

"Wait, Commander. I'll tell you," Yamato said in a small quivering voice, her trembling arm outstretched. "Please, don't go. I'll talk."

Good enough.

Yvonne sat back down.

"Talk," she said.

Yamato was silent for a few more moments, so much so that Yvonne wondered if she was going back on her word, before she finally decided on where to begin.

"Commander Swanson. This… ties back in to the question you asked me earlier. The truth is… the truth is that I, Yamato, volunteered for this assignment. I wanted to be your assistant. Originally you were supposed to be attended to by the light cruiser Ooyodo, but I appealed to the Admiral, and was appointed in her stead."

Well, this was an unexpected development.

"And this is your problem? That you volunteered for it?" Yvonne leaned in, genuinely puzzled by what she was hearing. "I'm afraid I don't see the problem here. So you volunteered. Okay. But that doesn't explain why you cracked."

"The truth is that I volunteered because I wanted to be useful." Yamato wrung her hands nervously, her face growing paler by the moment, even as her words became more coherent.

Yvonne realized that the reserved and shy Yamato was airing out her innermost thoughts to her: whatever was bugging her had been doing so for some time. In that light, her breakdown was a symptom of something that had likely persisted for long before Yvonne had ever set foot in Yokosuka.

"Commander Swanson, do you know about the nickname 'Hotel Yamato'?" She asked cautiously.

"It was a derogatory name the IJN used to refer to the original battleship _Yamato_ in World War Two," Yvonne recalled from her readings of the history books. "There was a perception amongst the rank and file that the ship was a white elephant. They served cold Ramune and free flow sake on that ship. She had carpeted floors and five-star accommodation, and the best food in the Imperial navy. Yamamoto gained twenty pounds living on her. Her maintenance and operating costs were astronomical. There was no practical way to use her, she was just too damned expensive to sail."

"Yes. That is certainly the case."

"Is?" Yvonne echoed, northing the present tense of the words.

"Indeed. I, Japanese Battleship Yamato… I am not able to take to the field because I put too much strain on our resources. I, Battleship Yamato, am a burden to this base."

It seemed just admitting this to someone else was nerve wracking, and it was taking every ounce of courage the poor girl had not to fall down crying now that she had said it. The look of frustration and helplessness in her eyes showed just how deep those feelings went.

Feelings that Yvonne had become all too familiar with, these past few months.

"I cannot even practice," Yamato said despondently, her hands clenching and unclenching again and again as she did so. "Even a simple practice session consumes an unacceptable amount of our resources. I haven't been able to take to the water on my own power in _months_."

" _Jesus_ ," Yvonne whispered as the pieces of the puzzle slowly came together.

She couldn't believe what she was hearing, but the answer was so obvious in hindsight. She'd been so distracted by the Yamato's power and reputation that she'd forgotten the girl that the legend was attached to.

It was like she was looking at herself, but worse.

At least in Yvonne's case she could blame an external source for her woes. Yamato on the other hand had no such scapegoat: she was blaming _herself_.

Wait, what happened with Matsuda…?

Oh hell, _no_.

"My conversation with Matsuda?"

"Yes," Yamato nodded her eyes once again beginning to water, "When you spoke of the _Mirai_ , it wounded me deeply."

Great. Now Yvonne felt like an ass.

Thinking back to her conversation with Matsuda, Yvonne realized how much of what had been said between the two of them would be hard on Yamato. While the two officers had been thoughtlessly making small talk about Matsuda's old ship, barb after barb was being driven into the heart of the girl who was listening.

 _Mirai_ was a conventional ship, considered impractical against the Abyssal fleet, and had weapons that were far too expensive to use in a meaningful way. However, even though _Mirai_ was a vessel whose weapons were ill suited to the task, she still was able to do her duty, by serving as a mobile headquarters. They'd even made that joke about the _Mirai_ being a _fucking_ _hotel_.

Akatsuki wasn't the only person putting her foot in her mouth today.

"When I found out about you coming to the base, I thought, this was my chance to be useful for once. I thought, as the pride of the Japanese Navy, I would be a fitting representative for our Kanmusu, to the first foreign officer to ever be assigned to our base." The pitch in Yamato's voice increased, her sadness and anger at herself reaching a crescendo. "I thought I could help impress the honour and courage of the Japanese Navy on our visitor and show them ho-how good we are… that we're committed to the defence of more than just the Japanese mainland. To make sure that by the time you leave the base, you would only have good things to say about us and spread the word."

"Yamato… I don't know what to say."

"But look at _this_!" Yamato despaired, looking Yvonne in the eye. "I promised you that all of us would welcome you, but then you run into Zuikaku and my promise turns to ash _right after I made it_. I wanted you to think of us as capable professionals, but Akatsuki made you think we're _children_ playing at war! And then… and then… now you're so disappointed in me you want to replace me with someone else! I-I-I don't know what I'm supposed to do!"

Yvonne was just barely able to catch Yamato as she fell out of her seat, sobbing and wailing all the while. The poor girl clung to her like she was a lifeline in the ocean, the battleship's tears dampening Yvonne's uniform, as months of repressed emotions came spilling out in one moment.

"Well this is a _fine_ mess that I've stepped into," muttered Yvonne.

* * *

"Here. Towel."

"M-My thanks, Commander Swanson."

It was sometime later when Yamato had finally calmed down. The battleship had become a complete mess at that point; runny nose and reddened eyes had turned the Japanese beauty into an object of pity… one that could possibly enrage anyone who saw her and make them chase down the fiend responsible, in order to administer justice and the wrath of heaven.

Fortunately, it seemed that with most of the nearby Kanmusu out of the dormitory for practice, on missions, or otherwise distracted, nobody had noticed just yet.

Since Yvonne in no way wished to be beaten to a pulp, the pair had quickly made a beeline for the nearest bathroom for Yamato to freshen up. This was why Yamato was standing in front of a washroom basin and inspecting herself in the mirror, while Yvonne was leaning with her back to the wall, watching her.

"How long have you been holding that in?" Yvonne asked, once she was reasonably certain another question wouldn't set Yamato off again. She was now sailing in murky waters, and didn't want to take any chances.

"Months. You are the first person I've told," Yamato said as she turned off the water faucet and began drying her face with the towel Yvonne had given her. "Not even Musashi knows."

"Musashi?"

"My sister ship. She's the secretary ship for the Admiral down in Kure." Yamato gave a humourless laugh. "She makes herself much more useful over there than I do. I tried to be a secretary ship myself, but all the Admirals are either too used to their own personal aides to consider a replacement, or are too intimidated by _me_ to accept it."

"Well that… sucks." Yvonne winced, wondering just how unlucky a person could get.

"If you… if you want to see the Admiral now, I, Yamato, understand," Yamato turned to face Yvonne and gave a deep respectful bow. "I apologize for my failure to live up to your expectations, and hope that m-my r-re-replacement will live up to your expectations."

Yvonne stayed silent for a few moments, in deep thought.

Outwardly, it might have seemed to the untrained eye that she was thinking about what to do. In truth, Yvonne had already made up her mind and was trying to figure out what was the best way of putting it to Yamato.

"No. I've changed my mind." Yamato's head shot up to stare at Yvonne, astonishment written all over her face, "Look, if I go back to the Admiral, what just happened is going to reflect badly on both of us over something that, quite frankly, isn't that bad yet. It's going to take some work, but I think we can make this assignment work out for both of us."

"What?" Yamato whispered in disbelief.

"Look, you're a good person, but you take everything far too personally," Yvonne explained with a shrug. "Okay so Zuikaku was a bitch. Big deal. We're in the military. There are plenty of assholes like her. And frankly? At least she was a bitch to me for something she believed in. I don't approve of _what_ she did, but at least I can respect _why_ she did it."

"I-I see." Yamato fidgeted awkwardly.

It seemed like the poor girl wasn't used to dealing with profanity. Tough. She was working with an American. Profanity was going to happen.

Yamato needed thicker skin anyway.

"Akatsuki's a kid. So maybe she made her division look stupid. Fine. Fix that _tomorrow_. Yes I know that first impressions are important and hard to fix if done wrong, but it's not like that can't be turned around with enough time and effort. That's something you have plenty of time to rectify. I just got here for fucks sake!"

Yvonne also didn't add that she actually found the Akatsuki sisters' antics endearing; she knew that wasn't the kind of thing Yamato wanted to hear. By this point Yamato was rapt with attention, focusing entirely on Yvonne's words. It occurred to Yvonne that, somehow against all odds, _she_ was giving _Yamato_ a prep talk.

"Finally… I know what it's like to be sidelined," Yvonne admitted in a softer voice. Now this was the tricky bit. She needed to get her point across without disclosing classified information of the highest sort.

"You? Commander Swanson? That can't be right!" Yamato gasped in disbelief. "You're so strong and capable. You stared down Zuikaku like she was _nothing_. You came here alone on a mission of utmost importance. How could _anyone_ have sidelined you before?"

Wow. From the look in her eyes, it was clear that Yamato, biggest goddamn battleship ever made and pride of the Japanese Navy, thought Yvonne was awesome.

 _Yamato_ thought _Yvonne Swanson_ was awesome.

 _Nobody_ back home was going to believe this.

"You'd be surprised," Yvonne said without missing a beat, "Look, I understand how you feel, and believe it or not there are a lot of people in the US Navy who feel the same way."

"Really?"

"We used to be the most powerful navy on the planet. We had bases all around the globe. We had eleven aircraft carriers, each with enough planes to beat an entire air force. We had subs that could launch nukes that would wipe countries off the map. Our surface fleet fielded some of the most powerful cruisers and destroyers ever conceived. Now look at us." Yvonne gestured down at herself.

"It may be a surprise to you, but if the Abyssals hadn't happened I would still be a junior officer, not an O-5. They didn't send me here because I was capable. They sent me because they didn't have anyone else _left_ to send and I was just the closest thing they had. The war wiped us out, Yamato. It broke us to the point where it's been a year since we stopped fighting to recover… and we're _still_ picking up the pieces."

Yamato shook her head with a hand over her mouth.

It seemed the battleship had suddenly realized just how bad the US Navy was having it at this point and had no idea what to say in response.

"The Abyssals killed us, Yamato. They killed a _quarter million_ of my brothers and sisters in arms. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to know the sons of bitches who did it are _still_ out there? That they aren't only still out there, but we can't do a goddamned thing to hit back because we're in no shape to? I think you _do_. And _that's_ why I want to work with you." Yvonne held out an open hand towards Yamato. "I volunteered for this assignment because I wanted to do something useful. You volunteered for it for the same reason. We have that in common, at least. There's going to be kinks we need to work out, but are you willing to tough it out with me until we start kicking fate in the nuts and get our goddamn due?"

"I… I… YES!"

Yamato seized Yvonne's hand and shook it enthusiastically, beaming with the most brilliant smile Yvonne had ever seen on the girl's face.

"I, Yamato, would be so happy to work with you, Admiral!"

"Um, that's 'Commander'. I skipped like three grades to get to Commander, so Admiral sounds _really_ awkward to me," Yvonne said nervously.

"If that is what you would prefer, 'Commander'." Yamato gave her a radiant smile, one that left no doubt to what she actually meant.

It was clear that Yamato was only addressing Yvonne as 'Commander' to humour the other girl, and in fact had made up her mind on what the American was to her.

 _Oh Christ on a Cracker, I 'seduced' the Pride of the Japanese Navy. What the hell have I done?  
_  
"Well, then. If that's the case, we should be going," Yvonne said, imagining damage control fairies panicking at being suddenly face to face with a ticking bomb. "DesDiv 6 is a bust for now, but there's other things that we could be doing in the meantime."

"Like what, 'Commander'?" Yamato said deferentially, though her smile was still radiant as ever.

"You haven't read the briefing yet, so I might as well help you work though that. I should show you what I've learned so far in my compiled research to bring you fully up to speed. You might even be able to give some insight into anything I've missed."

"As you say so Admi-Commander!"

As the pair walked out of the dormitory bathroom back towards Yvonne's office, it was a mirror of their earlier arrival, with Yvonne leading and Yamato following exactly four paces behind her… except this time, Yamato had a visible spring to her step and a smile that wouldn't fade.

Yvonne gulped.

 _Admiral Briggs is **so** going to kill me_.

* * *

 ** _To be continued…_**

* * *

 **Beta's note:** This chapter brought to you by the power of Deadpool, determination, sufficient "fuck it" level reached. This chapter was _not_ brought to you by Nvidia whose drivers are acting up and not only bricked my GTX 580 but fucked up my GTX 460 and made it go hang and spam my screen with artifacts by opening fucking Notepad. Typing in a snowstorm would have been marginally worse.

Still. It's here. It's done. (Also thanks to Gosu for spotting some things I'd missed out.)

 _ **WITNESS ME!**_


	3. Chapter 3: The Brave and the Bold

**Disclaimer:** This is a non-profit work of fiction using characters from the Kantai Collection franchise, developed by Kadokawa Games and published by . Please support the official release.

 **Additional note:** Please be advised this work contains allusion to certain contemporary issues, namely war crimes perpetrated by Imperial Japan in World War 2. This work is meant to be for enjoyment, and no offense is meant. Also note that, as a fanfiction, many liberties were taken with Kantai Collection canon for the purposes of this story. That being said, please enjoy.

* * *

"They're coming back," Yamato said. "Off to your starboard, one o'clock."

"I see 'em." Yvonne looked through her binoculars out towards the sea. In the distance, four small figures led by a taller form grew larger as they raced across the surface of the water towards Yokosuka. Destroyer Division 6 plus their flagship-slash-babysitter, the light cruiser Tenryuu, were returning following another successful expedition.

Yvonne had never seen an expeditionary mission before. When one such mission had cropped up, she had leapt at the chance to observe it. Her orders were to find specific ship girls that met the criteria for the mission, and she could only do that if she knew what they were capable of. What better way to do that than seeing them in action?

The reality of an 'expedition' was nowhere as glamorous as its appellation made it seem to be.

Yvonne sighed before letting her binoculars hang by their strap from her neck. She was in one of the auxiliary command centers observing Lieutenant Matsuda personally oversee the mission. But his intervention was superfluous. An expedition mission was so routine that Matsuda admitted he normally sent his ship girls out on their own and only checked in on them from time to time. The only reason he was actively monitoring their actions today was for Yvonne's benefit.

Towards the end, the American officer and her ship-girl aide had relocated outside to bring her Mark One eyeballs on the ship girls.

"Well, that didn't take very long," Yvonne grumbled. "I thought expeditions would be much more interesting."

"What _did_ you think they were like?" queried Yamato.

"Anything but what I'd just seen, that's for sure."

Perhaps it was because she was an American and a Westerner, but to Yvonne the word 'expedition' carried connotations of venturing into the unknown. Christopher Columbus discovering America, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Apollo 11 mission… pioneers who braved extreme danger in hostile waters, dangerous domains marked on maps as _here be dragons,_ to stake their claim on terra incognita. Of boldly going where no one had gone before… and not what was essentially a resource milk run.

Granted, it was a really fruitful resource milk run. Destroyer Division 6 didn't pride themselves as the top expeditionary team for nothing. Thanks to their efforts today, Yokosuka could sustain an intense carrier operation for a _week_. However, while their accomplishments were critical to the war effort, this 'expedition' was more _routine_ than anything else.

The last thing Yvonne wanted were people who did 'routine'.

"Well, I think we can effectively cross off the girls of DesDiv 6 from our list of candidates," she sighed. "On the upside, it wasn't as if I had high hopes for them in the first place. This pretty much seals the deal."

* * *

 **Kantai Collection: The Greatest Generation**

Part 3: The Brave and The Bold

* * *

"Welcome back, you five. Excellent work, as always."

As Matsuda praised the five Kanmusu that stood at attention, the dock workers began to lug the materials they had brought back to the nearby warehouses. The evening sun was just beginning to slip beneath the horizon, casting shadows on the pier from nearby crates and parked dock equipment. However, even in the dimming light, not even a blind man could miss the satisfied looks on the faces of the expedition members.

Commander Swanson and Yamato, the two observers, were off to the side. The former was entering her last observations into her tablet computer. They weren't part of the debriefing, but they'd hung around for reasons of their own. Tenryuu didn't mind their presence. In her mind, the more the merrier, especially when this was a chance to rectify that earlier embarrassment.

"We did a good job didn't we, Admiral?" Akatsuki puffed out her chest proudly.

The oldest Akatsuki-class destroyer wasn't the official 'flagship' this time, given Tenryuu had accompanied them. But she took extreme pride in a job well done. The tiny Kanmusu had been eager for a chance to prove herself to their visitor following the debacle that was their first meeting. She was sure this successful mission proved herself a true lady of the fleet to the doubting American!

"Yes, you did, Akatsuki-chan. I think this is one of the most successful expeditions you've done to date. I'm very sure the First Carrier Division will be very happy to know that they won't be having supply problems for the foreseeable future. Good job, everyone!" Matsuda confirmed.

All five girls took this as permission to break ranks and start exchanging high fives and praise.

"That's Destroyer Division 6 for ya!" Ikazuchi agreed with a hearty laugh, snatching up a stoic Hibiki's hands and shaking them animatedly.

"Akagi-san is going to be so happy with us, nano-desu!" Inazuma cheered.

"Ohy, you see that American? We kicked _ass!_ " Tenryuu, also riding high on her victory, thrust a clenched fist over at Swanson's direction. "What do you think, huh?"

"Hm?" The American officer looked up from her tablet, but her attention was directed at someone else. "Sorry, what did you say, Yamato?"

"Tenryuu's old equipment. Her charges greatly outgun her. You should probably add that in your report after the bit about Akatsuki's inexperience," Yamato advised, just a little louder than she had before… and just enough that the five Kanmusu could hear.

"Oh, right. Thanks for catching that. I'll add it into the report for the Admiral," Yvonne nodded.

DesDiv 6's cheerful celebrations came to a crash stop.

Commander Swanson and Yamato did not look the least bit impressed. The former seemed more interested on typing in her report, with the latter occasionally adding her own input. Up until Tenryuu had called out to them, Swanson hadn't even been paying attention to the debriefing.

The _fuck?_

Adding insult to injury, Yamato was the one who noticed the five sets of stunned eyes staring at them. She tapped Swanson's shoulder, the blonde's face still all but buried in the glowing screen of her tablet.

"Oh, Commander! Tenryuu and the girls are looking at us," the battleship remarked while gesturing at the five stunned Kanmusu .

"Oh? Oh! Oh yes, good work the lot of you!" Swanson hastily put her tablet away and put on a tepid smile, "You five did great work today. Congrats, Matsuda was telling me this was quite a haul-"

"What the hell!" Tenryuu roared as she stomped over, furious at the complete 180 degree turn the two-faced American had just pulled on them. "What the hell is on the tablet? For the Admiral? Old equipment? INEXPERIENCE? What the fuck are you writing?"

Swanson and Yamato, realizing that they'd made a mistake, quickly backed away as fast as they could, but found that their position on the pier left very few routes for a retreat.

Behind Tenryuu, the Akatsuki sisters were stunned, unable to believe that their expedition had not only failed to impress the observer, but she was about to submit a report to the Admiral that painted them in an unflattering right. Worse, Yamato was in on it!

The fuck was this bullshit?

"Tenryuu, stop this at once!" Matsuda ordered.

"Like hell! Not until I see what is on that tablet!" If this was the second fucking time this American bitch screwed her kids over, well screw the consequences, Tenryuu was going to take Swanson's head!

The nerve of this bitch! Tenryuu reached out towards Swanson... only to find that Yamato had interposed herself between the two like an iron wall, the battleship's features set in a determined frown.

"Move it, _Hotel_ ," Tenryuu snarled, her hand placed upon the hilt of the sword at her waist.

"I cannot do that, Tenryuu." Yamato twirled the parasol that rested on her shoulder. "Please cease your aggressive actions. This is a misunderstanding."

"You can prove it's a 'misunderstanding' by handing over that fucking tablet."

"I am afraid that what is on there is classified information, Tenryuu."

Everyone watched with bated breath as Tenryuu, a mere light cruiser that some even considered to be nothing more than an oversized destroyer, stared down the largest battleship in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The shocked Akatsuki sisters were huddling together like a quartet of thoroughly intimidated puppies. The dock workers had figuratively dropped everything to stare at the showdown.

"Jesus Christ. Me and my big mouth," Swanson hissed to herself in self-recrimination.

And then Matsuda put his foot down.

"TENRYUU. YAMATO. _ENOUGH!_ " he barked, placing himself in between the two Kanmusu, with a tone that brooked no objection. "Stand down! Both of you!"

Unable to disobey a direct order, Tenryuu took her hand off her sword while Yamato tipped her head and took a dainty step back.

"You two, cool it! That's an order," Matsuda said with finality.

"Yes, Sir." Tenryuu's teeth were gnashing against each other as she complied with his order.

"My apologies, Admiral Matsuda." Yamato bowed.

"Lieutenant, this is my fault," Swanson intervened. "I'll take full responsibility-"

"Yeah, you will, bitch!" Tenryuu all but spat at her. "You are _so_ lucky that Tatsuta's in San Diego right now, or your ass would be so-"

"That's it! You two, in my office, now! The rest of you, get back to work." Matsuda pivoted on his heel and marched off towards the nearby office building, anger radiating off his person. "You might as well come along, Commander. We are going to have to have a _talk_."

The angry JMSDF officer stormed off the pier, followed by a guilty-looking American officer and a resigned-looking Yamato with Tenryuu taking up the rear, her exposed golden eye burning a hole into Swanson's back the entire time.

This wasn't over, not if the Heavenly Dragon had anything to say about it.

Tenryuu felt a tug on her sleeve and looked down to see that Akatsuki and her sisters had chased after her. Worried tears filled their eyes.

Goddamn it all...

"Tenryuu-san…" Akatsuki was trying her best not to cry like the little child that she was.

"Why is this happening?" Ikazuchi asked with a whimper.

In spite of her anger, Tenryuu forced herself to put on a brave face for the kids. "Don't worry, kids," she reassured them. "Just head back to the dorm. I'll be back in a bit."

' _Swanson is going to pay for making my kids cry_ ,' she promised herself.

* * *

As it turned out, Yamato received a brief warning to keep out of fights in the future, given she had not been the one who initiated the hostilities and in fact acted to defuse the sizzling powder keg as well as to protect Swanson. The battleship Kanmusu was mainly present to serve as a witness.

The lion's share of Matsuda's fury was focused solely on Tenryuu.

Now, the light cruiser was not unfamiliar to a dressing down. Tenryuu was one of those military maverick types whose attitudes tended to attract a lot of heat from their superiors but still get away with it thanks to their irreplaceable expertise in indispensable matters. She'd built up quite a resistance to having a superior officer tear her a new one.

Tenryuu adopted her tried-and-tested approach: just stand there and take it until Matsuda exhausted himself with his shouting and ended up too worn out to actually hand out punishment.

"…right _after_ I told you to stop! I don't care what you thought was on that tablet! Commander Swanson is still a superior officer, and a visiting one from America at that! You almost assaulted her in broad daylight in front of dozens of sailors!" Matsuda slammed an open palm down on his desk. "That was _unacceptable!_ What do you have to say for yourself?"

"That the ungrateful bitch should keep her own opinions to herself?"

" _GODDAMNIT, TENRYUU!_ "

Further complicating the situation was Swanson's attempts to take some of the blame. "Lieutenant, look. I'm partially at fault here. I shouldn't have said what I did within earshot of your girls. Listen, this is _all_ just a big misunderstanding. I can quickly clear it up by showing-"

"Commander, don't trouble yourself. This is an internal problem that has been going on for some time," Matsuda insisted, before turning back to Tenryuu. "Light Cruiser Tenryuu. Your insubordination has gone on for long enough. I put up with your behaviour because of your value to the fleet, but what you did today… this is the last straw."

"Yeah, yeah. You say that every time you drag me over here," Tenryuu muttered to herself while nonchalantly waiting for her 'admiral' to finally get down to issuing the usual slap-on-the-wrist punishment. Matsuda was probably docking her leave privileges again or putting her on night sentry duty. At worst case scenario she could be confined for a few days. But hey, nothing she couldn't handle.

"I'm going to the Admiral and getting you scrapped."

"What?"

That… That wasn't the sentence that Tenryuu expected. Surely she had misheard him. That couldn't be it, right? Scrapped? There was no way that would happen. Obviously he said something else...

"You heard me the first time. I'm scrapping you." Matsuda's eyes were hard as the steel of Tenryuu's Rigging.

Swanson and Yamato had gone dead silent, the enormity of what was happening before them rendering them speechless.

"A-Admiral Matsuda… you're joking right?"

"You crossed a line, Tenryuu. I had hoped that your antics could be controlled, or that you would calm down and mellow out some day. But nearly assaulting a superior officer over a perceived slight, without even considering the proper channels is an overreaction I simply cannot ignore," Matsuda said as he leaned back in his chair.

Tenryuu felt like the floor had been yanked out from under her, as if the water buoying her hull suddenly gave way to air, a river turning into a waterfall that fell down, down, all the way down to the rock hard ground...

Scrapping.

It wasn't as bad as it sounded. Scrapping was the process in which a Kanmusu's abilities and equipment were taken away from her. It was effectively a permanent, irreversible discharge from military service. Sometimes honorable.

Sometimes not.

Tenryuu's life wouldn't be snuffed out. But she would be turned into a normal human being like Houshou. Unable to sail the seas on her own power and terms for the rest of her life.

"You're firing me?" she whimpered.

"Yes I am," Matsuda confirmed

This couldn't be happening. Tenryuu had been with this fleet since he'd arrived nine months ago. They'd worked together from the beginning: thick as thieves, partners in crime… comrades in arms. She'd been serving under Matsuda for so long that Tenryuu couldn't imagine being anywhere else but by his side.

More than that, she loved the Akatsuki sisters. Adored them. They were family to her, her precious gaggle of little sisters. She couldn't bear to part with them, all the more so knowing that with the war on there was a chance they'd have to face danger without her to protect them. If anything happened to them while she was away...

This couldn't be happening.

Yet it was.

"You're doing this. You are really doing this," Tenryuu repeated in a blank tone.

"Yes, I am."

"B-But Admiral. I… I, what about the girls?" Tenryuu's mind desperately raced in search of anything she could hold on to. It felt like she was being pulled against her will by the roaring currents of her namesake river. And she couldn't do anything to stop it. "You can't send them out on their own," she found herself begging. "Who's going to take care of them on the more dangerous assignments?"

"They've handled their expeditions well enough on their own without your help, and when Tatsuta gets back from the United States, she will be able to care for them."

Tenryuu felt her mouth go dry. Tatsuta, her sister. Oh no, what was Tatsuta going to think?

"Admiral, please. Please reconsider!" Driven to desperation, Tenryuu dropped onto hands, knees, and forehead. "I was wrong!" she confessed from the seiza position that she had assumed. " I'll write up a formal apology! I promise it won't happen again! _Please!_ "

"Lieutenant, I think-"

Matsuda's raised hand silenced Swanson. The young JMSDF officer looked down at Tenryuu with a merciless stare. "My mind is made up," he asserted.

At those words Tenryuu raised her head, her one uncovered eye looking up at Matsuda's to see nothing but cold hard judgement weighing down upon her.

Swanson and Yamato averted their eyes from the scene to spare themselves the discomfort and grant Tenryuu what little polite privacy they could afford her right now.

"Light Cruiser Tenryuu. Your orders are as follows: You will go to your dorm room and begin packing your belongings. While you are doing so, I will be in contact with the Admiral to discuss what has happened today."

This was a nightmare.

"You will be confined to quarters until such time when we have decided on when we will arrange for your discharge from service, and you will only be allowed to leave during meal times and to use the wash rooms. You will not be allowed any privileges while being confined."

This couldn't be happening.

"You have your orders." And Matsuda sealed his verdict by turning his back on his former subordinate. "Now get out of my office."

But it was.

* * *

Hot tears streamed down Tenryuu's cheeks as her calloused hands shoved her personal effects into the plain standard issue duffel bags. Humiliation and anger fuelled her silent curses at the unfairness of it all.

Why was _she_ the one who had been punished? That American bitch had been the one to stir up all that fuss about the stupid report! All Tenryuu wanted to do was stand up for her and her little sisters. And because of that she was being forced to leave, stripped of everything she was in the worst way possible.

This was just bullshit!

"Fuck you, Shitty Admiral! Fuck you with a fourteen centimeter shell!" As she haphazardly jammed one of her spare uniforms into her bag, Tenryuu could no longer bottle up her emotions. "How could you do this to me? I thought we were friends!"

She'd returned to her room in a daze, unable to fully comprehend the disaster that her life had become. The Kanmusu she'd passed on the way were but indistinct faces and voices she couldn't even recall. Every one of them had expressed concern at her uncharacteristic absent-minded state. But Tenryuu had just brushed them off. The whole trip had been one gigantic blur that centred around a single though: 'This is a dream. No, this is a nightmare'.

It was only after she had stepped into her room, the room that she shared with Tatsuta, and was halfway into the chore of emptying her closet of clothes and knick knacks that Tenryuu finally woke up from her walking fugue and found herself in the sweat-cold clutches of reality. That's when she finally figured out that the sky had long fallen on her purple-haired head.

That's when she fell apart.

"Fuck you, too, American Bitch! You wouldn't know what awesome is even if you managed to pry your fucking face off that fucking tablet of yours long enough to actually look and give a fuck!"

Tenryuu's emotions danced a ranbu, a wild dance, upon the fine line between anger and sadness. She lashed out at the ones she deemed responsible for her misfortunes with words brimful of venom.

"And you know what? While we're at it? Fuck you, Hotel Yamato! Take those 46 cm AP caps that you use for bra cups and shove them up your uptight ass because the only thing that comes out of your pretty little mouth is shit!"

As she ranted, she grabbed at her eye-patch, tore it off her face with such force that its strap snapped and slapped at her cheeks as a vengeful parting blow, and hurled the accessory into the floor.

How dare they? How dare they!

"Tenryuu-san?"

"WHAT?" Tenryuu blustered at whoever intruded on her during this moment of grief, fury and tears clouding her sight.

"T-T-Tenryuu-san…"

A cold cataract slammed into the bottom of her gut. Tenryuu frantically rubbed the blinding tears out of her eyes with her forearm to take an actual look at the four figures gathered at her doorstep.

Huddled outside her domain, the Akatsuki sisters quivered with fear and uncertainty. They'd never seen Tenryuu, their cocky, confident older sister figure in a state like this before. The scene proved so unsettling that all four of them, even the normally stoic Hibiki, were shaking in distress.

It was a sight that no older sibling ever wanted to see… much less cause.

"Oh my girls…" All the rage and anger drained out of Tenryuu's body as she witnessed her precious younger sisters in such a sad state.

"Tenryuu-san? Wh-what happened with the, Admiral?" Akatsuki asked in a whimpering voice, trying hard not to cry, "Did it go badly? Can we help?"

A thought slammed into Tenryuu like the Mark 14 torpedo that had sunk her original body: She would be leaving them. She was being forced to abandon the Akatsuki sisters and there was nothing she could do about it. Her little division of adorable destroyers would have to brave this world, this war full of wolves at sea and on land, on their own, without her, their flotilla leader, to lead them.

"Oh my girls!" She raced over to her girls and drew them into her trembling chest.

"Tenryuu-san!" All four Akatsuki sisters whimpered in one united voice as Tenryuu made them realize that she did not want to ever let go of them. "Tenryuu-san! What's going on?"

The temptation to lie to them was immense and seductive. Tell them that everything would be all right. Claim to be finally moving up the ladder and moving on to better things. Say that everyone was recognizing their big sister Tenryuu. Grant them the comfort of thinking that she wasn't the biggest fuckup in the world. Give them the faint hope that they would see her again someday.

But she couldn't do that to her girls. She loved them too much for it.

To be kind to them, she had to be cruel to them.

Tenryuu tightened her embrace before whispering: "Girls… I'm being scrapped."

And so the many massive dams confining the River Tenryuu shattered, and there was no way to stop her long-imprisoned emotions from flooding forth.

She told them then about what happened. How her anger at Swanson and the kami-forsaken report had gotten the better of her and brought about her downfall. How she would no longer be a Kanmusu, not for long, not anymore. How she was going to be cashiered in disgrace, humiliated in the worst way possible.

How being true to her feelings had cost Tenryuu all her ambitions and dreams. How she had lost everything because of what she believed in.

There was none of the bluster and posturing that characterized the Heavenly Dragon. In this situation she found it impossible to puff herself up into anything remotely appearing ferocious. This was the first time Tenryuu allowed herself to show weakness to the four girls whom she had taken under her wing nine months ago.

"Then-... then the Admiral said he'd had enough of my crap…" Tenryuu shuddered. "He said he was going to s-scrap me… So I'm here, packing my bags..."

"That's so unfair!" Ikazuchi blurted out in between her own sniffles, "It was that meanie's fault! We did good work and she was all mean 'n stuff! I can't believe we tried being nice to her! Why isn't she being punished?"

"She's a superior officer. I can't touch a superior officer, no matter the reason," snarled the helpless Tenryuu.

That American bitch... That son of a Hakuchō had forced her way into their lives like a homewrecker. She had forced Tenryuu and her kids to jump through hoops for her amusement. And now she had irrevocably upended their lives, and nothing was ever going to be the same again.

'Izanami-no-Mikoto take you into her rotting bosom, Swanson!'

"We'll… we'll go to the Admiral," Akatsuki declared. "We'll go to him and appeal. He likes us, so he'll listen. We'll get him to let you stay, Tenryuu-san!"

Tenryuu gave the defiant little destroyer an even tighter hug as a hollow reward for her loyalty. "I don't think that's going to work this time, Akatsuki-chan," she whispered.

She hated to admit it, but Tenryuu knew that Matsuda's action lay well within his rights as her commanding officer. And that was the part that burned the most. Despite all her curses at him, Tenryuu admitted to herself that she had crossed a line in the sand. She had come close to assaulting a superior officer. And not just any superior officer, but a human one. And given the strength of the light cruiser she embodied, Tenryuu could easily have killed Swanson with just her bare hands.

And to add insult unto injury, Tenryuu had openly threatened to strike Yamato when the battleship came to stop her. She had placed her hand on her sword and had been this close to whipping her butcher's blade out of her scabbard and trying to plant it within Yamato's heart.

"The Admiral is serious this time. I… I fucked up," Tenryuu admitted. "I'm done for. I'm sorry, Akatsuki-chan. There's nothing you can do."

Her vocalization of her sins ended any little hope within the Akatsuki sisters that things could still get better. They had never seen Tenryuu in a moment of weakness, but now she was admitting to be at the lowest ebb of her strenth.

"We can still see you after this, right?" Inazuma was pawing at an ever-thinning pile of straws. "You can still come and visit, nano-desu?"

Tenryuu didn't reply. She didn't need to. Everyone know the JSDF's policy with regards to active duty Kanmusu. If the service took Tenryuu's Rigging and sent her away, chances were that she wouldn't be seeing them again for a very long time. And with the war raging on, she might never see them again.

Her silence was everything they needed to hear but didn't want to know. The five ship-girls tried to find comfort in each other's shaking arms, hoping against hope that this hug would not be their last.

" _Do svidaniya_ , Tenryuu-san."

"Thank you, Hibiki… Thank you, girls… You're the best little sisters any big sister could ever ask for..."

And for the first time in her life, Tenryuu permitted herself to cry like the sweet children in her arms. And it made her just a little bit happy to share her tears with her precious little Akatsuki sisters.

Even if their first time to do so might be their last time as well.

* * *

Hours later, Tenryuu awoke alone on her bed. Sitting up caused her blanket to fall off her shrugging shoulders. As she took a look around her room, the drowsy soon-to-be-former-ship-girl realized that the afternoon had long given way to midnight.

The only sign that the the Akatsuki sisters had been in her room was the blanket that she didn't recall covering herself with. Tenryuu reasoned that they must have awoken ahead of her and quietly retired to their own room.

It was really considerate of the girls to let her catch up on what little rest remained to her. And besides, they had plenty of important stuff on their plate tomorrow.

Unlike her.

"Alone, huh? I guess this is something I'm going to have to get used to." Tenryuu chuckled humorlessly to herself.

Her eyes were still sore and it felt like the strength had been drained from her sore muscles. But she didn't feel like getting back to sleep anytime soon. Another look around her room reminded her how messy it had gotten during her interrupted packing.

Tenryuu decided that she might as well do some tidying up. So she hopped onto her bare feet and began gingerly picking her way through the mess to collect the bits and pieces of her life strewn all over the place.

In a way the room reflected her current emotional state. Tenryuu had not been in her right mind when she began to pack her things. Her crying fit with the Akatsuki sisters had helped calm her down, but the damage remained.

It took her a full fifteen minutes to get everything back into some semblance of order. In the course of cleaning up her mess, Tenryuu wondered what she was going to do with herself now that the chapter of her life as a Kanmusu came close to an end. Scrapping ship-girls wasn't unheard of, but given their scarcity and the need for every able-bodied Kanmusu available, it was incredibly rare.

Only a handful had retired with dignity so far. These were mostly older vessels like Houshou who were too worn out to to continue active service. A few rotten apples had been thrown out on their asses for bad behavior… and it seemed that Tenryuu counted as the latter.

Her mind drew a blank on her immediate and far-off futures. Unlike some of the other girls, Tenryuu didn't have any plans for herself outside of being a Kanmusu. She knew that some of her light cruiser sisters-in-arms had cultivated ideas on how to be integrated into civilian life after the war. Naka, for one, made no secret of her plan to enter the idol business as a full-time performer and future manager.

Tenryuu wasn't one of those far-seeing girls. She had long decided to devote her entire life to the military. She was going to live as a Kanmusu, and she would die as one.

Not anymore.

"Geez, what a mess. Tatsuta would slice my ears off if she found I left our room like this." Tenryuu pulled a pair of undergarments from where they were hanging from her ceiling fan. How the heck did they manage to get up there? "Well, that seems that I got everything."

Casting her eyes around the room one last time to see if she'd missed anything, Tenryuu noticed something she'd missed before. A small handwritten letter rested on the wooden desk on Tatsuta's side of the room. Curious, Tenryuu walked over to pick it up and found that it was Inazuma's prim and easily legible script. They sisters must have left it for her before they had left.

Nice kids. She was going to miss them.

Curious as to what it said, Tenryuu began reading aloud.

"Dear Tenryuu-san. Sorry to leave you alone while you were sleeping. You were so sad earlier, so we thought you should rest when you looked so peaceful sleeping like that."

Chuckling to herself at how considerate and cute her kids were, she continued reading the note.

"We talked among ourselves and decided that… the meanie American… oh, _shit_."

Tenryuu's face went pale as she continued, her voice rising even as her sense of horrific doom deepened. The sisters couldn't possibly be doing what she thought they were, could they?

"The meanie American needs to get what's coming to her. You said you got into trouble with that stupid report, so we're going to steal it from under her nose… girls what are you thinking, she sleeps _next door to Yamato and all the other battleships_ … and take it to the Admiral to show him how mean she is. When he sees it, he'll understand what a meanie she was and forgive you, you'll see. Just sit tight and let us take care of you for once! Signed, Inazuma... no, no, no, what are you four _thinking?!_ "

This was bad! This was worse than bad; this was a disaster! They'd completely misunderstood why Tenryuu was in trouble, and in their childish idealism had gone off to try and fix the perceived problem by _breaking into the room of a foreign military intelligence agent to steal her fucking tablet computer_ , one that Swanson had explicitly noted to be carrying classified information.

Tenryuu had landed herself in the scrapyard for merely threatening Swanson. She did not want to think of what would happen to the Akatsuki sisters if they got caught trying to steal top secret military information from the American intelligence officer!

She was already damned. But there was no way in this Hell of hers that she was going to let her kids end up like her.

"You idiots!" Tenryuu burst through the door of her room and sprinted harder than she had ever done in both of her lives. "I have to make it, I have to make it!"

Hold on girls, Tenryuu's coming!

* * *

It was way past 'lights out.' Aside from the few guards on patrol and the night shift, the base was sound asleep. So it was during this state of low activity that a single shadowy figure slipped through the night, making her way from the Kanmusu dormitory to the officers' barracks and feeling like the greatest dumbass on the entire planet.

Tenryuu had never felt more vulnerable and stupid in her entire life. Here she was, a warship trying to be stealthy on dry land. And she didn't do stealthy. She was completely out of her element.

Creeping around Yokosuka with a spare scarf fastened around her face to muffle her breathing and disguise her features... crawling through foliage on her belly, darting from shadow to shadow to minimize the time she spent lit up, and even climbing up a tree to avoid a patrolling guard... Tenryuu was the clichéd picture of a traditional thief. It was not an image the boisterous and straightforward light cruiser had ever expected herself to be doing. But then again, she hadn't even considered the possibility of herself being dismissed from active service, so there was that as well.

She wasn't supposed to be out here. In fact, Matsuda's orders were pretty clear. Tenryuu was confined to her room until further notice.

Yet here she was, not only out & about in direct & willful disobedience of those orders, but doing so during curfew hours. She was already screwed over, but she knew that getting caught now would make her previous situation look peachy.

But the girls, her girls, were counting on her. And Tenryuu was not going to let the Akatsuki sisters down.

So she persevered with all the pluck and daring she was known for. And she surprised herself by somehow making it to the thick bush outside the officers' barracks without getting detected despite moving with all the grace of a blue whale attempting to climb Mount Fuji.

The cost was that she now looked like a mess. Her recent impression of a snake had gotten dirt all over her clothes. The perspiration caused by her fearful exertion had turned the grime smeared across her face into a mask of mud. There were leaves and twigs stuck in her tangled hair and handkerchief head cover, with two particularly long sticks on both sides of her head pointing straight up like the radar antenna on Nagato and Mutsu's headbands.

There was an upside to her disheveled state. If she ever got spotted, the impromptu mud facial should make it harder for someone to recognize Tenryuu.

But what really concerned the cruiser right now was the lack of hide or strand of hair of the quartet of destroyers she had come to find. While she knew the odds of running into the Akatsuki sisters on the way over here was incredibly slim, Tenryuu had held onto a faint hope of intercepting them and forestall the debacle before the ball got rolling.

Unfortunately, this hadn't been the case. So now Tenryuu stared at the quiet barracks building.

Maybe four would-be thieves had not yet made their attempt. The Akatsuki girls might have even decided not to go through with their plan.

On the downside, this could be the calm before the storm, the moment Admiral Yamamoto embarked on the greatest mistake of his life when he sent the message "NIITAKA-YAMA NOBORE 12 08" to Admiral Nagumo aboard _Nagato_ on the fine morning of 7 December 1941.

There was only one way Tenryuu could find out.

"The American bitch was living in the second floor, I think..." She crept out of the bush and began scaling the side of the barracks from the outside. Finding handholds on the building's smooth concrete wall wasn't easy, but the determined light cruiser made up for it with sheer grit and occasional use of her inhuman strength to gouge out sufficiently-sized handholds in the walls as quietly as possible.

Vandalism? Pah! Tenryuu was already on her way to the scrapyard. Any other punishment was peanuts compared to stripping away her power and status as a ship-girl.

When she'd finally gotten to the second floor, she discovered another problem.

"Which room is it?"

Tenryuu had no idea which room Swanson was occupying . All she knew was that the American was living in the female side of the barracks in a room very close to Nagato, the staff of the secretary ship, and last but definitely not least, Yamato.

This was an intimidating prospect to say the least. Tenryuu knew that entering the wrong room could result in her coming face to face with an irate battleship looking to pound her bridge in for interrupting her beauty sleep. The combination of her ignorance and the blinding darkness meant that Tenryuu had no way of knowing who or what waited for her in each room that she investigated.

But she had to check every room. It was not the smartest thing to do given battleships lived in this dorm. However, for the sake of the Akatsuki sisters, Tenryuu would brave the 46 centimeter guns of Yamato herself if she had to.

"Okay, let's check behind window number one," Tenryuu muttered. She inched herself over to the ledge to the nearest room and began peering through it to see what lay beyond…

"I'm telling you, Nagato-nee. I heard scratching on the walls. There is something outside my window, I'm sure of it!"

"It's just your imagination, Mutsu. Look, let me just open it-"

…only to have the damn thing swing out and slam into Tenryuu's grimacing face.

"HOLY FUUUUUUU-!" Tenryuu gave a loud shriek as she plummeted to the ground. Thankfully she landed in the same bush she had been using as camouflage just a few minutes ago.

Oh, yeah. She had been quite noisy climbing the building, hadn't she?

'I'm a dumbass!'

Spitting out some leaves that had gotten herself into her mouth in the process, Tenryuu stuck her shrubbery-covered head out of the bush and looked up.

And immediately wished she hadn't done so.

For looking down at the horrified Tenryuu's were Nagato and Mutsu in night clothes.

Lights started to come on throughout the entire barracks. Tenryuu's scream had not gone unheard.

"Secretary Ship! We heard a shout! What's wrong?" A familiar voice heralded the appearance of two more faces at the window. Yamato and Swanson responded to the cry of alarm by joining Nagato and Mutsu at the windowsill.

Four pairs of eyes looked down through the open window at Tenryuu. The stunned stares of the three battleships and one human officer were like iron pins that immobilized the cruiser.

As she returned her astonished gazes, breath caught in her throat, Tenryuu could hear the barracks coming alive with shouts of confusion and alarm as the building occupants awoke.

"Well, now. That's something you don't see every day," Swanson quipped with a raised eyebrow.

Caught in the act by three of the most powerful Kanmusu in Yokosuka, frozen like a deer in the headlights, Tenryuu knew she was done for.

"Who the hell is that?" Mutsu asked, eyes wide as the window of her room.

Tenryuu remembered to breathe. They hadn't realized who she was! The poor lighting, the mud & leaves marring her features, and the scarf covering her head, she remained unrecognized! She had a chance!

She ducked her head back into the bush and scrambled away on all fours as fast as her arms and legs could take her while hoping that the battleships would stay stunned a bit l-

"Guards! Intruder! Put the base on alert, we have an intruder in the base!" Nagato bellowed, loud enough that Tenryuu was sure that she could have been heard all the way on the other side of the Pacific. "We have an intruder! GUARDS!"

Well, shit.

* * *

Tenryuu figured that in the increasingly likely event that she was thrown off the base with only the dirty clothes currently on her back, she could probably apply for a job that required a lot of tree-climbing, a skill that she was rapidly getting pretty good at.

Hiding among the leaves of another tree she had relocated to, after her latest hiding spot was nearly compromised, Tenryuu wondered how she was going to get out of this mess. And what was going to happen to her if she didn't escape the ongoing hunt.

Granted she was already going to be scrapped. But Tenryuu knew that if anyone ever discovered she was the intruder, scrapping was going to be the least of her worries. Maybe they'd have just thrown her out on her ass before, but at the rate she was going, Tenryuu was probably looking at some serious jail time.

That's what they did with panty thieves, didn't they?

"I can't believe it! An honest to goodness panty thief! MY GOD!" Kongou, leader of one of the nightgown-clad search parties that had eagerly volunteered to hunt that fiend down, exclaimed loudly from below where Tenryuu was hiding.

The ship-girl base, being as specialized and regulated as it was, maintained a token number of human staff on site, including guards and military police. As such, Nagato had roped in all the Kanmusu that were willing to help – which was most of them - in apprehending their intruder. Soon the base was on full alert with roving flotillas of excited Kanmusu (some armed to the teeth thanks to partial summons of their Rigging) running about trying to find the 'fiend'.

Honestly, it was a wonder they hadn't realized it was her the moment they did a headcount. Tenryuu wasn't complaining, though.

This heightened security made it considerably harder for Tenryuu to get back to the relative safety of her dorm.

The one bright spot to this bleak night was that Tenryuu had seen Inazuma in one of the patrol groups. If Inazuma was searching for the intruder, it stood to reason that her other sisters were also part of the hunt. If that was the case, that meant they weren't raiding the American's room.

Well, at least she accomplished part of why she came out here.

Now all Tenryuu had to do was survive.

This must be what submarines felt like while being hunted by squadrons of destroyers. The next time Tenryuu met one, she promised to buy that sub-girl the biggest goddamn parfait she could afford, because that kid deserved it.

If there ever was a next time...

"We must find her and administer BURNING JUSTICE!" Fires of righteousness blazed in Kongou's eyes. "A panty thief! I never thought I'd see the day!"

"It was only a matter of time, Kongou-nee-sama," Kirishima stated severely while nodding head besides her sister. "We may be battleships, but we are also beautiful young women. It is only natural that young boys would take interest in us. We should capture him and… interrogate him to see what he knows!"

"But wouldn't we be more worried about enemy spies? This is a military base, so maybe the intruder was looking for something else!" Haruna, seemingly the only one of the four sisters with half a brain, suggested.

Unfortunately, the lone voice of reason was quickly smothered by counter-battery fire.

"No way! Nagato's description of the intruder clearly matched that of a panty thief!" Hiei pumped her fist excitedly. "Man I can't wait to find that pervert and beat him into the ground! Try stealing our panties, would you?"

It was all Tenryuu could do not to bash her head against the trunk of the tree that hid her from sight. In fact, she seriously considered just dropping out of the tree, going over to Kongou, and slapping the silly out of the former battlecruiser.

Panty thief? This was a fucking _military base!_

What about that American bitch's tablet, the one with classified information? Have her soon-to-be-former sisters-in-arms forgotten there were more important things in the barracks that underwear?

Seriously, someone attempts to break into the officers' barracks where the base's secretary ship **and** a foreign intelligence officer were staying. And somehow these girls' first suspect was 'panty thief'.

Tenryuu didn't consider herself the sharpest tool in the block, but _come on!_

And yet pretty much all the Kanmusu who were searching for her had somehow jumped to the same conclusion: that a heinous pervert had infiltrated the base to steal their undergarments.

Tenryuu had known Kanmusu were mildly military and a bit eccentric. After all, she was one of them, even if it wasn't for much longer. But this really took home the cake.

She was beginning to worry for the future of Japan, all the more so now that she was getting kicked out of the outfit.

"Nee-sama! I think we should check our own dormitory!" Hiei declared. "If she really is a panty thief, she might try to steal our stuff too!"

"OH NOES!" Kongou gasped in pure dismay. "The only one who should see my panties is the Admiral! Onwards girls, we must secure our modesty!"

With that, the fast battleship foursome tromped off to secure their precious underclothes from the non-existent panty thief reputedly out to steal their treasures.

Tenryuu resolved to make sure that the Akatsuki sisters never grew up to be as airheaded as those bimbos.

Remembering she was going to be scrapped, her mood once more plummeted like plunging shellfire.

"Heh, I guess I am going to miss this," Tenryuu muttered to herself as she rested with her back against the wooden bark.

For all the idiocy of the Kongou sisters, it was their eccentricities that made life in Yokosuka so exciting. And they weren't the only colorful personalities on the base, merely its most colorful.

The naïve innocence of the Akatsuki sisters, the insatiable appetite of the First Carrier Division and the rivalry they had with the Fifth Carrier Division, Tenryuu herself being the butt of Tatsuta's jokes… despite being embroiled in the greatest conflict ever recorded in human history, everyone on Yokosuka brimmed with quirky life.

Even this tense hunt for an intruder had somehow transformed into something so amusing and memorable.

Tenryuu couldn't believe she was no longer going to be a part of this. The realization cut her more deeply than her own sword.

"…I have to keep moving."

Tearing herself free from ruminations about 'meanwhiles' and 'neverweres' and 'could've beens', Tenryuu continued her silent run back to the dormitory.

* * *

'Eat your heart out, Sendai,' thought the triumphant Tenryuu. 'I'm a better ninja than you!'

Somehow, against all odds, she'd managed to make it to the small garden area in front of the main entrance of the dormitory without getting detection. Either she had massive unrealized talent at stealth, the other Kanmusu of Yokosuka were _horrible_ at detecting an intruder on their home turf, or the ship-girls weren't taking this hunt seriously.

Tenryuu sincerely hoped it was the first one.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she crawled through the undergrowth, hoping she could make the home sprint. And then she saw a final complication.

"What do you mean, 'you haven't sent everyone out?' There is an intruder on the base! We need to find them!"

Shoukaku wilted under the angry gaze of Nagato. The similarly cross Mutsu, Swanson and Yamato stood right behind the frustrated secretary ship.

"Some of the girls are tired and stressed out," weakly argued the snow-haired carrier. "I thought it would be best if-"

"This is a critical situation!" Nagato was furious. "There is an intruder on the base. We have no idea what his objective is or what he's capable of! What if he means us harm? And you let the other carriers sleep in during this emergency?"

Well, that explained why there weren't any fairy-manned observation planes in the air. While none of the carriers were certified for night operations, the lighting around the base would have sufficed to guide the good old Mark One eyeball. Good thing they hadn't gotten involved: if they had, Tenryuu's goose would have been cooked!

"Well, I…"

"Did you _even_ do a headcount?" Tenryuu could almost see the steam issuing from Nagato's ears after Shoukaku shook her head. "What if the intruder had kidnapped or killed someone? We wouldn't know about it until it was too late because you didn't bother to check! I am doing a headcount, get everyone else _in_ that building _out_ here, _now!"_

With an "Eep", Shoukaku scurried inside the building to gather up anyone who was still inside.

Inside the bush, Tenryuu realized that all her efforts were for naught.

Nagato wanted a roll call immediately. That meant that there would be no chance for Tenryuu get back into her room and clean up her mud-caked self.

If she continued to hide herself, everyone would notice her absence and rightly suspect her. But if she showed herself in all her mud-encrusted guilt...

Either way, she was screwed.

But Tenryuu refused to quit. She was a fighter. If she couldn't cancel her personal apocalypse, she would settle for delaying her doom for as long as possible by. Fate was going to have to drag her kicking and screaming all the way to her execution.

Still, watching everyone in the dormitory file out one after another and line up in parade formation before Nagato and her entourage sent a chill down her spine, especially since Tenryuu was mere footsteps from discovery.

"I am so screwed," she mumbled to herself once the last jammies-clad ship-girl made to the very end of the line.

"Roll call! Sound off!" Nagato ordered.

"Naka-chan is the first one!" sang the Idol of the Fleet.

"Two," yawned a bleary-eyed Yuubari, who'd been up all night tinkering with her Rigging like usual.

And so it went, as Kanmusu after Kantai Musume reported in before their secretary ship while the helplessly immobile Tenryuu could only watch from her concealing bush.

Much to her relief, Hibiki and Inazuma were among the line-up. The two young destroyers stood out from the others in that they were the only ones wearing their uniforms. From what Tenryuu had pieced together, Hibiki and Inazuma had been returning to the dorm from one of the search parties when the other Kanmusu began filing out.

To avoid confusion and maintain headcount, Nagato had gently told the young destroyers to join the line, at least for the moment, until they finished.

"Eleven!" Zuikaku yawned. "Final count."

"Eleven. How many do we have on patrol?" Nagato asked of Mutsu, who had been on the radio talking with Ooyodo in the guard room for a headcount of their volunteers.

"According to Ooyodo? Twenty five, not including ourselves and Yamato."

"We're down a head," Nagato declared after pausing to do a brief mental calculation.

"Perhaps it's Tenryuu?" Mutsu suggested thoughtfully. "Lieutenant Matsuda submitted a report to the Admiral for her scrapping, so maybe she's sulking in the dorm somewhere?"

There were multiple gasps from among the line of Kanmusu at that.

"If it is her, then she's in for a world of trouble," Nagato growled. "She may be going to be scrapped, but until she is she is still a Kanmusu of Japan, and that means she has to act like one. Hibiki!"

"Da, Secretary Ship?"

"Go into that dormitory, find Tenryuu and bring her out here," Nagato ordered sternly.

"Understood, heading out." Hibiki gave a polite nod, pivoted on her foot and marched back into the dormitory.

Tenryuu knew the white-haired destroyer like the back of her hand. So she noticed Hibiki's brief hesitation to accomplish Nagato's orders and the sideways glance meant for Inazuma, who looked even more skittish than usual.

Something was very wrong. They couldn't have…?

"Inazuma, fall out," Nagato ordered, motioning for the little destroyer to move behind her. Inazuma, wringing her hands all the while, shuffled behind Nagato where Mutsu, Swanson and Yamato waited, and then turned to face the line of Kanmusu and presented her back to the bush where Tenryuu was hiding.

And then Nagato opened up with a blistering salvo that would cause Yamato to blush.

"WHAT THE HELL WHERE YOU NINE THINKING?!" Nagato roared at the top of her voice, causing everyone, including Tenryuu, to flinch. "THERE IS AN INTRUDER ON THE BASE, AND YOU NINE DECIDED TO SLEEP IN? THAT IS THE MOST IRRESPONSIBLE AND SHAMEFUL BEHAVIOR I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE CAREER!"

"Well, you haven't been at this for much longer then we have…"

"WHO SAID THAT!?" Nagato was on the warpath. Soon the nine Kanmusu looked like they'd rather take on an entire Abyssal battlegroup on their own than remain in the secretary ship's smoldering sights for one second longer. Tough, because there was no sign that Nagato would be letting up any time soon.

Well, getting chewed out by Miss Beeeg Seeebeeen wasn't going to be something that Tenryuu would miss…

A soft thump followed by a terrified "Hawawa" drew her attention away from where Nagato was grilling the Kanmusu to where Inazuma was standing.

Lying on the ground behind Inazuma's shoes after falling out of her sailor blouse was an unmistakeable shape as flat as the chest of its owner.

Commander Swanson's tablet.

Tenryuu felt her mouth go dry as questions whirled through her dizzy head. How had Inazuma gotten it? Were Akatsuki, Hibiki, and Ikazuchi involved? More importantly, why had Inazuma brought it here?

Inazuma was fully aware of her loss and precarious position. The little ship-girl was vibrating in fear. She began using the heel of her shoe to slowly nudge the tablet into the undergrowth that Tenryuu was using as cover. It was excruciatingly slow, but any faster and she might have drawn unwanted attention.

Fortunately Nagato was too busy tearing the line of Kanmusu a new one to notice, and Mutsu, Yamato, and Swanson were morbidly engrossed by the scene. But Inazuma still needed to get rid of the tablet ASAP.

Tenryuu wanted to pound the ground in anger. Her little sister was in danger! Inazuma had gotten herself into hot water because of her!

And then she noticed Swanson stiffen.

Oh, shit.

The American officer turned that disquietingly curious gaze of hers upon Inazuma, who froze like a rabbit spotted by a fox.

Time seemed to slow for Tenryuu as she witnessed the makings of a disaster. Of all the people who could have noticed, it just had to be the American bitch. And the moment Swanson spotted her tablet and recognized it, Inazuma would be doomed.

Like Hell! Tenryuu knew what she had to do.

"Hey, kid," Swanson began. "There's something behind-"

"TENNO HEIKA BANZAIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Tenryuu exploded out of the shrubbery. She scooped the tablet from the ground and went after Swanson. "SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER!"

"WHAT THE F-!"

The astonished look in Swanson's eyes, the look of a vulnerable enemy flagship caught in the naval searchlights of a light cruiser on a last ride to death and glory, was something Tenryuu would treasure for the rest of her life.

* * *

The silence that filled the office of the Rear Admiral in charge of Yokosuka was stifling.

Tenryuu fidgeted under his gaze. The Admiral had a reputation among the Kanmusu for speaking more with looks than words. She'd rather die than admit it, but that stern gaze was unnerving her. It was a relief when he finally spoke.

"We all know why you're here."

Tenryuu, covered in foliage, mud & grime, stood stiffly before the Admiral's desk, surrounded by very cross people. Understandable, given she'd kicked the shit out of at least two of them. And while she might have taken quite a pounding in the process (as evidenced by her cuffed lip, bleeding nose and aching ribs), she still felt she'd gotten the best of the exchange.

Not everyone could say they had knocked Nagato unconscious by bashing the battleship over the head with a tablet with such force that the blow broke the computer. Knocked her out for a good thirty minutes too!

"Yeah, yeah. I beat the shit out of three battleships before they restrained me." Tenryuu shrugged offhandedly. "Then I wrecked the Yank bitch's computer over Nagato's head as my parting shot. Not bad, if I do say so for myself."

She knew she was doomed. She had known it the moment she flung herself out of the bush right into harm's way for Inazuma's sake. Her sole thought had been to destroy the evidence in a way that wouldn't implicate the Akatsuki's sisters while drawing the attention of every other Kanmusu in the area.

And she had succeeded.

Swanson and Yamato stood off to the side watching proceedings. The latter was nursing a black eye. The former hadn't said a word to Tenryuu after getting ambushed, instead settling for an intense stare directed at the smug light cruiser who'd come within a hair's breadth of beating the stuffing out of her.

Nagato stood by her Admiral's side, holding an icepack to her forehead. She, too, was staring at Tenryuu, except her glare was lined with 16" shells and the promise of justice.

"Tenryuu, are you completely unrepentant for your actions? Does your foolishness know no bounds?" The only thing keeping the battleship from throttling Tenryuu was the presence of the Admiral and Swanson. "You broke into the room of a foreign officer, stole military equipment containing classified information of a foreign nation, assaulted three of your comrades in attempting to attack aforesaid foreign officer, and then destroyed what you stole moments before capture just to spite us? Is that it?"

Tenryuu was faced with Nagato's full unbridled fury. It was a sight that would have sent lesser people or Kanmusu screaming in terror.

"Yeah, destroyed it by breaking it over your head."

"TENRYUU!"

However, Tenryuu wasn't intimidated in the slightest, not this time. Nagato might have intimidated all those Kanmusu earlier, but Tenryuu had just knocked her out in melee with an improvised weapon. So much for a member of the mighty the 'Big Seven'!

"Look, Secretary Ship. We both know there's no salvaging this situation." Tenryuu rolled her eyes dismissively. "Let's dispense with the pleasantries and just get down to the fact that I'm fucked beyond all measure, 'k?"

"So. You have nothing to say in your defence?" The Admiral said evenly. Unlike Matsuda, who had been brimming with anger, the Admiral simply spoke with authority and experience.

He too understood this was merely a formality and wanted to finish going through the motions as quickly as he could. As far as anyone was concerned, Tenryuu was guilty as sin.

"Nope. What's there more to say? Let's be honest here. You guys caught me with the smoking gun," Tenryuu shrugged, allowing herself a cocky smile as she did so.

"There will be consequences," the Admiral said. "Before, you would have just been quietly scrapped and dishonorably discharged to avoid the loss of face of the Kanmusu corps. However with this… we will have no choice but to do a full court martial. I can assure you that you will be facing jail time."

Tenryuu felt her heart clench at the thought. She wouldn't just be scrapped, her dreams and ambitions taken away from her, Tenryuu would have her name permanently blackened in the eyes of her countrymen. To her knowledge, no Kanmusu around the world had ever been dismissed in this manner. She could forget trying to make a life outside the Navy after this; Japan's stance on people with prior convictions was not pretty.

However, Tenryuu couldn't think of any way out of this without also compromising Inazuma. That was something she would not allow, not even to save her own skin.

"…Just get on with it," Tenryuu grumbled, closing her eyes and accepting her fate.

She had won, but it victory would have its cost.

"Very well." The Admiral. "Light Cruiser Tenryuu…"

The doors to the Admiral's office swung open.

"Admiral, wait. There has been a development," Matsuda announced as he entered… followed closely by all four Akatsuki sisters, their eyes red and faces pale with fear. They were huddled around Inazuma, who was shaking like a leaf, and clearly the most frightened of them.

There could only be one reason why there were here, and Tenryuu felt her heart sink through the floor.

"Well? Spit it out, Lieutenant."

Looking regretful, Matsuda stepped aside to allow the four destroyers to take center stage. All eyes in the room focused on them. Akatsuki, the ever stalwart leader of the group, looked like she was about to speak up, when Inazuma laid a trembling hand on her shoulder.

The message was understood.

Breaking away from her three sisters, Inazuma, the kindest, most soft-spoken of the Akatsuki sisters, looked the Admiral in the eye and spoke the last words Tenryuu wanted to hear.

"It was me, nano-desu. I stole the tablet, nano-desu."

And then she began to talk. She described in detail on how she had come up with the idea of getting back at 'meanie-pants' by stealing the tablet from under her nose. She went into how the four sisters had meticulously worked out a 'fool proof plan' to clear Tenryuu of the injustice done to their big sister figure. She then lamented their panic when plan had fallen apart when the base suddenly went on alert when the 'panty thief' had appeared.

Then she revealed that she, somehow hidden outside Swanson's room in the confusion, had seen the intelligence officer run into the room to grab things before rushing out to aid the search effort, leaving the door ajar. She had taken advantage of Swanson's actions to rush in and quickly grab the tablet from where it was resting on her desk before running back out again. She had planned to hide the pilfered tablet in the dorm.

Then the roll call, her near discovery, and Tenryuu's sacrifice. Inazuma continued spilling the beans, each word driving a stake into Tenryuu's heart.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! Tenryuu wanted to run over, seize Inazuma by the shoulders and demand to know why the little destroyer had done what she had done. Stupid, stupid, stupid girl! Tenryuu knew she was doomed anyway, but now Inazuma would be punished as well. The destroyer was still young, but that black mark on Inazuma's record would have consequences for her, consequences Tenryuu had now failed to protect her from.

She had been so close! Just a few days more, and the matter would have been settled. Kanmusu were very sensitive issues with the Japanese, and Tenryuu knew they'd want this settled and swept under the rug as soon as they could. Better to believe one troublemaker was responsible than that one of their more dutiful and well liked Kanmusu had played a part. Tenryuu would have shouldered it all, and no one would have been bothered to look deeper.

They had almost gotten off scot free, and no one would have been the wiser. She had almost won! Tenryuu wanted to laugh, cry and scream at the same time, but alas she was pinned in place by her frustration at the futility of it all.

Matsuda clearly already knew, and now the Admiral would know as well.

It had all been for nothing.

Eventually Inazuma stopped talking, leaving the room in silence as everyone digested what had just transpired. The awkwardness and tension in the room was so heavy Tenryuu could almost taste it. What had previously been a simple, if unpleasant, matter had taken on an entirely new dimension, and no one in the room quite knew how to deal with it. Even the weathered Admiral looked like he had swallowed something sour and was unsure what to say.

"So is this correct, Inazuma?" the Admiral said solemnly. "You admit that you were the one to break into Commander Swanson's room and steal her tablet, and Tenryuu is only here because she covered for you? Am I to understand this is correct?"

"…yes, nano-desu." Inazuma shifted nervously on her feet, eyes downcast.

The older man contemplated what Inazuma had just revealed. Were it any other person, the Admiral would not have believed the story so readily. However Inazuma was one of the most honest and upstanding Kanmusu alive. She couldn't tell a lie to save her life. Her story had to be true… no matter what it implied.

"Thank you for being honest, Inazuma," the old man said, not unkindly, and for a moment Tenryuu could have sworn he had aged in the time it took for Inazuma to confess. "But this changes nothing," he continued, eliciting shocked gasps from all four destroyers. "Regardless of her reasons, Tenryuu still assaulted three other Kanmusu and put the base on false alert. Compounded with her earlier actions…"

"But it was all meanie-pants fault!" Ikazuchi interrupted, clearly in a panic. She was quickly pulled back by Hibiki and Matsuda, both who looked helpless and resigned. The Admiral had come to a decision, and there was no stopping what was about to happen.

"As I was saying, Tenryuu's actions, when taken in full, are unacceptable for a Kanmusu of the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force. You may have provided some mitigating circumstances for her later actions, but the fact remains she has done things we cannot ignore." The Admiral regarded Inazuma with a pitying look. "You four have also conducted yourselves in a manner that requires disciplinary action. I take no pleasure in this… Lieutenant Matsuda."

"Yes, Admiral?"

"Clean up your mess. I'll deal with Tenryuu." The Admiral's expression was stony. "This matter isn't finished, Lieutenant. We _will_ speak of this later."

"I…I understand, sir." Matsuda closed his eyes. The four Akatsuki sisters, unable to do anything more, were now openly crying at their failure. Their good intentions had not only failed to save Tenryuu, but it had shot themselves and Matsuda in the feet. It was, plainly put, a disaster of epic proportions.

Tenryuu herself just stood there, shoulders sagging under the weight of everything that had happened today. Nothing had gone right. Everything had gone wrong.

Nobody said a word.

Nobody… until Swanson spoke up for the first time.

"So, let me get this straight," Swanson said, her eyes having never deviated from Tenryuu the entire time, not even when Inazuma had been talking, "You, Tenryuu, first left your dormitory when you realized what the four sisters were doing?"

"Isn't that fucking obvious by now?" Tenryuu answered sharply.

The Admiral, Matsuda and Nagato looked like they were about to reprimand her, but were stopped when Swanson raised a hand in a placating gesture. The American was clearly up to something.

"Okay, so out of concern for your fellows, and with little time to prepare or devise any alternative situations, you attempted to break into a building where you knew that there were three, _three_ battleships were sleeping. You did this knowing full well that they would not take well to your intrusion, and that you could get into a fight with them, as well as numerous officers who could very well throw the book at you. Is this correct?"

"Yes."

"Now, upon discovery, you successfully evaded search teams actively trying to locate you while you returned to your dormitory. Several of these search parties were ship girls with their equipment. Is this correct?"

"Well, most of them just grabbed their guns and I don't think any of them had their radar, so…"

"When you arrived at the dormitory, you found your escape route cut off. While hiding from Nagato, you saw Inazuma drop my tablet on the ground. In a split second, you realized what she had done, that she was in imminent danger of discovery by myself, and that you were the only one in any position to stop it."

Swanson paused for effect as everyone in the room slowly digested what she was saying,

"You then made the _conscious decision_ to _break cover_ , _feign_ an attack on a _human_ officer to draw the attention of three _battleships_ onto _yourself_ so that you could _create_ _an incident_ to cover up Inazuma's misdeeds… an incident you knew would be dealt with closed by your superiors as fast as possible due to the sensitive nature of Kanmusu. You made a series of _calculated risks_ to sacrifice _yourself_ to protect your peers. And in the process of doing this, you knocked Nagato on her ass while taking on three opponents that were way above your paygrade. Am I right in saying all of this?"

The room was dead silent. There was no need to answer, for the answer was obvious.

More than a few jaws were hanging open, Tenryuu's included.

Swanson turned to the admiral, her eyes and jawline set.

"Fuck it. I need her."

What.

"Commander Swanson, what are you…" the Admiral began, only to be cut off by Swanson whose eyes were so bright as if they were on fire.

"The Chief of Naval Operations gave me a blank check to get anything I needed for my mission. Tenryuu is _exactly_ what I need. I want her." Swanson stated firmly, then added, "You know what? Throw in the rest of Des Div 6. They snatched that tablet from under my nose and would have gotten away with it if Nagato hadn't run over to the dorm. But more to the point: I need her."

"But she's about to be scrapped!" Matsuda protested on reflex, only to flinch at the glare he got from Swanson.

"You people don't want her? Fine. Gimme a line to the Pentagon so I can talk to Admiral Briggs. I wasn't kidding about my blank check. We'll _buy_ her from you if we have to. People are complaining we don't have any ship girls anyway. What better way to start with a cruiser like Tenryuu?"

"You are serious. You are completely serious," Nagato whispered in shock and awe.

"Do you think I'd kid around about anything relating to my mission?" Swanson stated firmly, jabbing a finger in the direction of a flabbergasted Tenryuu. "I need this girl."

To say that nobody in the room, besides Swanson, had any idea what was happening anymore was an understatement. The day had been a rollercoaster ride for all of them, Tenryuu and the other members of her unit especially. This was merely the latest twist in an already complicated story. The Yankee that had been the cause of their downfall was now trying to _poach_ them.

"May I ask why?" the Admiral said, voicing the thoughts of every other person in the room.

"Tenryuu is a light cruiser. In fact, she's a light cruiser that, from her specs, is actually more of a glorified destroyer than anything else. I said as much in the report I submitted to you earlier today," Swanson stated with absolute certainty. Tenryuu bristled at the mention of her older equipment and the mention of that damned report, but held her tongue just this once out of curiosity. "However, she willingly took on three battleships, including the Yamato, knowing full well she was at a disadvantage... and she _won_."

"She didn't win. She eventually was overpowered," Nagato pointed out.

"You and I have very different definition for victory then," Swanson corrected, her lips slowly curling into a smile. "Tenryuu picked a fight she knew she couldn't physically win, yes, but she did so while fulfilling her real objective, which was to cover up what Inazuma did. Had these four not come forward on their own accord, chances are she would have pulled it off. Hell, if the Akatsuki sisters waited a day to come forward, we might not even have believed them."

The pieces were falling into place as everyone began to realize what Swanson was getting at. The Akatsuki sisters had stopped crying and seemed hopeful once again. The Admiral had started leaning forward, his interest at Swanson's reasoning growing by the minute. Nagato, Yamato and Matsuda just seemed stunned at what was happening.

And Tenryuu?

Tenryuu was rocking back on her feet mouthing the worth 'what' over and over. This was surreal. One moment she was being crucified, the next she was being praised. Life didn't make any sense for her anymore.

"You do realize that Tenryuu is still considered an underpowered Kanmusu with severe attitude problems," The Admiral pointed out.

"History has proven that smaller warships can go up against larger ones and win all the time. November '43, Ironbottom Sound. Destroyer _O'Bannon_ takes on battleship _Hiei_ in an action that ultimately causes the battleship to be scuttled. Also in November '43, Guadalcanal, your destroyer _Yuudachi_ took out two destroyers and a cruiser. October '44, Samar, four tin cans hold off the entire Japanese fleet at point blank range to protect American escort carriers and force them to retreat after two hours of combat." Swanson shook her head firmly, her point having been made. "It isn't the size of the ship in the fight that counts, it's the size of the fight in the ship. And Tenryuu has a hell of a lot of fight in her."

The sheer amount of reverence and respect in those words almost sent Tenryuu to her knees. This was the highest praise one soldier could give to another, and Swanson, the woman Tenryuu had hated with a burning passion just hours before, had given it to her.

"Equipment can be upgraded. Skills can be trained. That attitude though? That innate courage?" Swanson turned towards Tenryuu, their eyes meeting once more. It was at that moment Tenryuu knew that Swanson, a young girl barely older than she was, was someone who would move Heaven and Earth to see her will done… am inspirational leader who could lead men and women into the gates of hell itself to do battle. A leader many would gladly follow…

"I. Need. Her."

…And it was in that one moment of clarity that Tenryuu became one of them.

* * *

It was only hours later, when the sun was starting to creep over the horizon, when Yvonne Swanson finally stumbled back into her quarters. The young woman was exhausted after spending hours hashing out the details of her newest 'acquisition' with the Admiral.

It had been hard, it had been difficult, but Commander Yvonne Swanson, United States Navy, was now the proud commanding officer of one Tenryuu-class light cruiser, officially on loan from the JMDSF to the USN until further notice as a gesture of good faith and cooperation between the two services.

Unofficially, it was Tenryuu being assigned to penal duty for 'grievous insults and unacceptable behaviour' and 'damaging military equipment' by serving under the woman she had offended, but honestly Yvonne didn't care. She'd gotten what she wanted. A light cruiser capable and brave enough to take on three battleships at the same time and knock out one while accomplishing her mission objectives would be invaluable no matter how she looked at it.

To think she'd been so certain that none of the ship girls in that expeditionary mission had been what she was looking for!

"I sincerely hope that you aren't going to make a habit out of this, Commander. Why, at the rate you're going, you'll have a whole bunch of us following you!" Yamato had jested to Yvonne, before she had gone back into her own room. "Why, I would almost think you're building a harem!"

"I really do hope she was joking about that," Yvonne groaned as she buried her face back into her pillow, thankful that the Admiral had given her until the afternoon to catch up on her missed sleep, "Making a harem? I'm not really doing that am I?"

This was not what Yvonne had expected to happen when she'd come to Yokosuka.

"Dakota and the others are _so_ not going to let me live this down."

* * *

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **Beta note** : I can foresee a great many unhappy letters in my inbox in the future, haha.

In the interests of heading off a similar shitstorm to what happened a year ago, I'll note that military discipline can be a harsh and unforgiving thing, and yes, getting Tenryuu scrapped is a massive escalation on part of Matsuda and Yokohama Admiral, but as the POV is following Yvonne, we're as ignorant as her as to Tenryuu's past misbehavior. (I now invoke my right as Comrade Archivist to deploy Word of God and state that Tenryuu is 1) not a model shipgirl and 2) the scrapping wouldn't have been immediate, there would still have been a disciplinary hearing at first, and an Article 32 would have happened. But that's not really relevant to our story. ;) )

This chapter is brought to you by the Committee for the Restoration of The Greatest Generation. My sincere thanks to you, Comrades. This chapter was also brought to you by the Asus GTX 750 Ti Strix. It was _not_ brought to you by a certain head of state whose wife has a memetic compulsion to buy handbags.

Thanks for reading, as always, fellow admirals. And remember:Tenryuu is the mother of DesDiv 6's hearts. Tenryuu is best chuuni momboat. Even if she'd gut me like a fish for saying that. ;)


	4. Chapter 4: Spirit of Competition

**Disclaimer:** This is a non-profit work of fiction using characters from the Kantai Collection franchise, developed by Kadokawa Games and published by . Please support the official release.

 **Additional note:** Please be advised this work contains allusion to certain contemporary issues, namely war crimes perpetrated by Imperial Japan in World War 2. This work is meant to be for enjoyment, and no offense is meant. Also note that, as a fanfiction, many liberties were taken with Kantai Collection canon for the purposes of this story. That being said, please enjoy.

* * *

 _Every time I close my eyes, I see them._

 _It always comes back to this. Always the same ferry. Always surrounded by the dead and the dying._

 _I can hear their weak pleas. "Help us," they beg me. "Save us."_

 _But I come late to their aid. I am powerless to save them._

 _My fighters and torpedo planes and bombers can destroy or drive away the Abyssals. But my weaponry cannot save a dying child. My aircraft cannot combat sickness like medicines and vaccines. They cannot become food that will repel starvation and strengthen the weakened. And they cannot replace the lives lost to the demons of the deep._

 _I can exact vengeance for the dead. But my victory is meaningless. They still died. They died because I am a failure. Because if I was better, they would still be alive._

 _So I push myself harder and harder. I must be stronger. I must be perfect. We stand on a knife's edge. If I falter, we are all lost._

 _We stand on the edge of destruction, and yet the Americans do nothing._

 _It has been a year since we came back. Twelve months of continuous combat. But the Americans sit in their safe home, protected from attack, and do nothing._

 _Why are they not summoning their Kanmusu? Why have their mighty fleets not returned to scour the Abyssals from the seas? Can they not see that we are suffering, that we are worn to the bone, that we are not enough?_

 _We need them. But they are not here. And victory is ever distant. It is all we can do to maintain the precarious balance of survival._

 _The Americans have abandoned us. In deed, if not in words._

 _But I... I will not abandon my nation._

 _On my honor as a member of the First Carrier Division, this I swear. I am aircraft carrier Kaga. I will not be found wanting._

 _I will do my duty._

* * *

"Lieutenant Matsuda is being assigned to you as well?" Yamato raised a hand to her mouth, in surprise at Yvonne's statement.

"Well, that's the gist of it. The Japanese brass weren't comfortable with me being in direct command of a flotilla of your ship girls for the mission, so the Yokosuka Admiral decided to recommend Matsuda to command the task force while I act in an 'advisory capacity'," Yvonne clarified. "He already speaks fluent English and I've pretty much appropriated his entire fleet, so he's a natural choice, given he knows how to use them best."

"That's quite a promotion. We should congratulate him!" Yamato beamed.

"I guess so."

Yvonne didn't mention that this was probably the only move available to the Admiral that could possibly save Matsuda's career.

The Akatsuki sisters' actions had left Matsuda up shit creek without a paddle. His subordinates had carried out an unsanctioned mission to steal foreign secrets from an allied intelligence officer; in other words, an act of espionage.

Normally this kind of thing would have sunk the man's career outright. It was only the Admiral's gamble that had given Matsuda a second chance. By undertaking this high risk, high reward assignment, the black stain on Matsuda's career might be mitigated or even erased.

If he successfully pulled off the capture mission, Matsuda would have redeemed himself in the eyes of the admiralty. If he failed... Well, he was pretty much screwed anyway, as the admiralty would make him the perfect scapegoat to foist their failure on.

Yvonne didn't like the logic behind the decision, but she could see its appeal to the Japanese high command.

Poor bastard. She didn't want to be in Matsuda's shoes right now. Yvonne hoped he wasn't the kind to carry a grudge, because that would be bad for their ongoing relationship.

"In any case, it will be good to have him on board. The more, the merrier, right?" With that said, Yvonne turned to regard the guard on the other side of the guardhouse window, who seemed to have finished checking his records. "Private, I trust that everything's in order?"

"Yes, ma'am, they are." The man saluted before sliding an object, a new tablet computer the US Navy had sent to replace the one Yvonne recently lost, through the slot in the bulletproof window. "Here you go, Commander. Your other item will be delivered directly to your quarters within the hour."

"Thanks!" Yvonne gave the soldier a curt nod, then motioned Yamato to follow her, as she walked away from the guardhouse with her new tablet tucked under her arm.

"Other item?" Yamato questioned.

"It's a personal item that I had a little trouble bringing in until now. I was having a little difficulty getting it cleared, but the paperwork just came through today," Yvonne said happily. "It's pretty cool. I'll show it to you later. Anyway, we're supposed to observe the carriers today at the archery range, to evaluate a few more candidates."

"I see."

"You ever seen them practice, Yamato?"

"No. I am a battleship. I, Yamato, may have a few scout planes of my own, but my way of fighting is very different from them, and so I have never trained with them before. So, no, I hadn't really paid attention to how the carriers practice," Yamato admitted sheepishly, as the pair proceeded through the base towards the training area. "I thought the mission was supposed to involve lot of close quarters combat. Is securing a carrier really that important for this mission?"

"Absolutely. Having a carrier as part of the fleet is essential for the success of this mission," Yvonne nodded steadfastly. "While we are going to need to close with the Abyssal we want to capture, we need a carrier to help secure air superiority first, to minimize the risk to our capture team from enemy bombers."

Perhaps it was because of her background in the US Navy, but Yvonne felt that carriers offered a task force the tactical flexibility that few other ships could provide. While they didn't have the thick armor or short range firepower needed to go toe to toe with the Abyssals at point blank range to capture them, it didn't change the fact that a carrier's powerful ability to engage the enemy at range would be a huge asset, first at picking off the target's escorts and then later providing cover for the capture team from air, surface and underwater threats, while they executed their mission.

"You really are fond of carriers, aren't you?" Yamato observed.

"Well, carriers _and_ submarines.

"Really, a submarine?" Yamato tilted her head. Yvonne wasn't too surprised at her confusion: the doctrine of the Imperial Japanese Navy during WWII had placed a greater emphasis on surface ships. Their submarines were generally considered to have been underutilized. It was no surprise that the reincarnations of their ships felt much the same way.

"Let me put it this way. If the surface fleet is a hammer that breaks an enemy's back, the submarine service is the scalpel that can sever their tendons long before they even know it's a fight," Yvonne laughed, "but we don't have to worry about that. I've already handled the sub issue before leaving the States, so we don't have to worry about finding one at the moment."

Yamato looked at Yvonne questioningly.

"Fill you in on it later. But back to carriers: my old CO had saying he was very fond of: _'Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit Often'._ Carriers are experts at doing that, _especially_ at range," Yvonne explained to Yamato. "I feel kinda weird saying this to a battleship, particularly one used to being a flagship, but a fleet without a carrier is a fleet without its teeth."

* * *

 **Kantai Collection: The Greatest Generation**

Part 4: Spirit of Competition

* * *

"I can't believe that American!"

"Now, now, Zuikaku. It's not her fault that Tenryuu and the Akatsuki sisters made the mess that they did," Shoukaku said, in an attempt to placate her younger sister. "Nagato was right to hand out her reprimands."

"It's not the reprimand that I'm angry about!" Zuikaku said, stabbing her chopsticks into her breakfast furiously from where she sat across from her older sister. "Did you hear the news? She appropriated the _entire_ Destroyer Division Six! Everyone, including their _Admiral!_ What the hell?"

"Um, that's bad table manners, Zuikaku. You shouldn't stab your chopsticks into your rice bowl like that. It's disrespectful."

"Sorry, Shoukaku-nee, but it's just got me really riled up..."

It hadn't taken long for word about the latest development about their American visitor to spread among the Kanmusu of Yokosuka. The news that five of their number had been 'loaned' to the American came as something of a shock to their number. Further investigation revealed that the five Kanmusu, one of which had been narrowly saved from being scrapped, were to be sent on a highly secretive mission, of which none of the Kanmusu, outside of a select few, were privy to.

Safe to say, this was the morning's hot topic.

Speculation abounded as to what Swanson needed them for. Some believed that Swanson was on a secret mission of utmost importance, one that could decide the fate of the Pacific theatre. Others believed that she had more nefarious designs, and was in fact gathering information on their capabilities for her government, for after the war ended.

No one could really agree, and everyone had an opinion.

Zuikaku didn't really care about whether Swanson's intentions were noble or despicable. What really concerned her was the fact this outsider had stormed into the base, and started throwing her weight around like she owned the place. The arrogance was just sickening.

For some reason, the Admiral was bending over backwards to accommodate Swanson. The American was given special quarters, allowed free reign to move as she pleased - an honor most Japanese soldiers Zuikaku worked with didn't even have - and was attended to hand and foot by Yamato, pride of the Japanese Navy.

But that wasn't all.

"Shoukaku-nee, don't you get it? She's taken Destroyer Division Six and one of our most important logistics officers!" Zuikaku pointed out severely. "That's our best expeditionary taskforce and the guy who handles all the supplies for the First and Fifth Carrier Divisions. She's shot our logistics in the foot! How are we supposed to fight if we don't have ammunition or fuel?"

"The Admiral said he was moving people around to compensate," Shoukaku tried weakly.

"The Admiral shouldn't have to," Zuikaku retorted. "Shoukaku-nee, I know you're a really nice person, but there are limits. This American runs roughshod over _everybody_ , including our _Admiral_. She's taken five of our number right off the roster for her pet project, meaning we're down five people in a war we're already badly outnumbered in. The best part is she doesn't even tell us _why_ she needs Kanmusu for her little project. She's an analyst!"

"I'm sure she has her reasons..."

"Doesn't that make you even the slightest bit mad?"

"Um, no."

Zuikaku let out a long sigh and hung her head.

"Really, Zuikaku. The Admiral wouldn't be doing anything without good reason," Shoukaku said soothingly. "But more importantly, we should try not to be suspicious of our allies. Aren't we all on the same side?"

"I know, but it's hard to do that when we're the ones who get trampled underfoot by that American brute," Zuikaku murmured darkly, even though there was a part of her that recognized the wisdom of what her sister was saying.

There were many Kanmusu who distrusted the Americans on principle alone. Zuikaku was well aware that, in addition to herself, Kaga, Ashigara and Ooi were also extremely vocal in their aversion to Swanson's presence. However, unlike her, their grievances were more rooted in a war that was over, instead of the war that they were still fighting.

"Look, Shoukaku-nee. My problem isn't that we _once_ fought with the Americans. My problem _right now_ is that the Americans are forcing us to do their dirty work for them," Zuikaku clarified herself. "So they don't have Kanmusu because they got their asses kicked. Fine. I can sympathise with that. So we have to protect their entire Western Coastline until they do. Fine. If not for them, for the civilians. But that doesn't give a right for them to send some woman we know virtually nothing about, to barge into _our_ home, order around _our_ Admiral and take _our_ Kanmusu whenever it suits _her_ , without even telling us the full story! That isn't being an ally, that's being a bully!"

"For once, we can agree on something."

Zuikaku turned her head to regard the two girls that had been passing their table, wooden trays containing their own breakfasts in hand.

"Kaga." She inclined her head slightly as a greeting.

"Zuikaku," the stoic carrier returned.

"Good morning, Akagi-san and Kaga-san," Shoukaku greeted the two newcomers politely. "Are you ready for practice this morning?"

"Indeed we are! It's been a while since we've been able to actually practice together as a group," Akagi chirped happily. "Oh! That reminds me, we've never really seen Taihou practice either, since she transferred in."

"Well she does use that crossbow of hers..." Zuikaku mused.

"The Second Carrier Division, Ryuujou and the Shouhou sisters sailed all the way from Kure to joining us too," Shoukaku added. "It's like a meeting of carriers! It's going to be so exciting."

"Indeed. We haven't had a chance to really compare ourselves against each other since getting our remodels, haven't we," Kaga added condescendingly, meeting Zuikaku's eyes. "This will be the perfect chance at proving once and for all that the First Carrier division is superior to the Fifth."

"I wouldn't bet on it." Zuikaku rolled her eyes and turned back to her food, tuning out the excited conversation between Akagi and Shoukaku.

She just couldn't get fired up like the rest of them. Normally, Zuikaku would be itching at the chance to finally challenge her long-time rivals, but the young carrier had a sneaking suspicion that the reason for the conference had less to do with coincidence, and everything to do with a certain American Kanmusu poacher.

After Tenryuu, it was an open secret that that Swanson was looking for ships, and what other ship would an American look for to round out her collection than an aircraft carrier?

"What does she think we are, pocket monsters?" Zuikaku grumbled, "If she takes Shoukaku-nee, I'm going to kick her ass."

* * *

Two hours later, the practice session was well underway.

Vocational training for carriers wasn't anything spectacular to look at. Unlike the destroyers and cruisers whose training normally involved intense maneuvering practice and live fire exercises out in the harbor, the carriers of the Japanese Navy had instead devoted themselves to the mastery of traditional Japanese archery.

Whereas other ships engaged the enemy at closer ranges, carriers were expected to stay well away from danger, and instead devote themselves to carefully managing the use of their air wings. While they did from time to time practice evasion and maneuvering with other ships, most of their training was dedicated to self-mastery and self-control: they needed to be completely aware of themselves and their surroundings to bring out the most of their abilities, regardless of the circumstances they found themselves in.

Learning the traditional way of the bow, Kyudo, was an essential part of a carrier's regular training. It had been that way since Houshou had first taken up the bow, and it would be that way long after the war came to a close. It was so effective that carriers from other nations like the Royal Navy had adopted this form of training. Even if a carrier eventually settled on another weapon, the basic principles and the associated benefits of that training would remain.

Yokosuka's archery range wasn't anything spectacular. Certainly it was much larger than a typical archery range to accommodate the needs of its main users, but it hardly deviated from the tried and true setup found in similar facilities all around japan. Targets down range, covered building for the archers and their equipment at the other end, and a large open space in between.

Granted, their range also had cheap mini-drones to serve as moving targets, pop-up target boards interspaced at varying distances and even a brand new 'laser hologram projector' that nobody had bothered to use yet, but the essentials were all there.

Zuikaku stood next to her sister as the two members of the Fifth Carrier Division notched their arrows on their bows. At the far end at the fifty meter mark, two unmoving targets waited.

Satisfied with her posture, Zuikaku controlled her breathing and slowly, meticulously, turned to face the target. Her mind had being emptied of all thoughts, save for those related to the eight stages of shooting, hassetsu. Once she had locked her eyes with the target, she raised her bow above her head before reaching for the traditional full draw.

She had done this hundreds of times. Thousands of times, even. This was an art that she, and every other carrier in the fleet, had practiced to mastery. The sense of calm was absolute. Control over mind and body, unassailable.

She was no longer a just carrier, but a part of a natural, instinctive process.

Full draw completed, Zuikaku felt a wholeness in her body as her fingers began to loose the arro-

"Ah-choo!"

The release was fouled, the process sullied.

The arrow left the bow in a sub-optimal trajectory, spinning right and away from the target's centre. Had it not transformed into a fairy operated Zero fighter halfway and corrected itself, the arrow would have gone completely wide. The fighter quickly righted itself and strafed the target, but alas the shot was ruined: even the fairy pilot's best efforts could only manage a glancing hit.

"WHO!?" Zuikaku spun around, fury etched on her features as she searched the faces of the other carriers and spectators for the culprit. In retrospect, it could only have been one person.

"Uh, my bad," Swanson coughed abashedly, setting her tablet down to accept the handkerchief from Yamato. "Sorry, um. I'll put a note on the scorecard that I interrupted your shot."

"There is no need," Kaga stated bluntly, from where she and Akagi were waiting for their turns. "Unlike what you Americans may think, Kyudo is not just a sport like the ones you choose to amuse yourselves with. It is a proper martial art of self-mastery and self-control, not something you could understand."

"Huh. Really? You so sure about that?"

"Distractions on the battlefield are liabilities," Kaga insisted with a tight nod. "That Zuikaku allowed herself to be interrupted by such a simple distraction speaks of her own ineptitude."

"You two..." Zuikaku felt a vein swelled in her head as she gripped her bow tighter, while Shoukaku tried to mollify her from the side.

* * *

It was tough resisting the urge to throttle both the American, who had crossed her yet again, and Kaga, who had decided to rub salt in the wound.

Somehow, Zuikaku had managed it and soldiered on.

The rest of their first round of shooting had soon ended, and before Zuikaku knew it she was back on the benches, watching other carriers have their turns at impressing the outsider.

"Like I'd want to," Zuikaku huffed, as she attempted to drill a hole into the back of Swanson's head with her gaze while the woman watched the Shouhou sisters have their turn. "I have a half mind to do badly on purpose now just to spite that inconsiderate sneezing jerk."

"Now, now, Zuikaku. We can't lose our temper now. It was an honest mistake. People sneeze all the time," Shoukaku pointed out from beside her.

"Yeah, hopefully it was because someone was talking behind her back."

Sneezing aside, Zuikaku's real reason for being cross with Swanson was the fact that the officer's presence had confirmed her worst suspicions: the woman was trying to poach a carrier.

It was clear as day by this point. Anyone watching the blonde haired officer typing away at her tablet would be able to see what the woman was up to. Virtually every Kanmusu in attendance was aware of this, and much like Zuikaku, none of them were pleased about what was happening.

"I can't believe this. We're not even part of this base and she's evaluating us too," Hiryuu whispered to Zuikaku from where she sat with Souryuu. "What are we going to tell our admiral if we get pulled off the fleet for her operation? It's going to mess things up completely on our end."

"No shit, you think? We're already being reshuffled over here because of what she did with the destroyers. I can't imagine what it's going to do to both our bases if she does," Zuikaku agreed. "Still, your Admiral must have agreed to this in advance, else you guys wouldn't be here otherwise."

"Seriously?"

"The Admiral wouldn't release us like that!" Souryuu gulped worriedly. "Oh no, what about Shouhou and Zuihou? I can't imagine them being separated from us!"

"Well Zuihou does see Zuikaku as a role model, so it might not be so bad," Hiryuu noted.

"Hey, it's only a possibility. I'm not fond of the idea of having anyone from Kure poached either." Zuikaku pointed out. It was one thing if a carrier from Yokosuka got appropriated by Swanson, but if one of the Kanmusu from Kure was snapped up, it would have far reaching consequences for both bases. Losing a carrier would probably involve a transfer from Yokosuka to Kure to make up for the loss, and that opened the possibility that someone from either the First or Fifth Carrier Divisions would be packing for extended trip.

Not a chance in hell.

"No way am I going to work with that woman. I didn't take up arms so I could fight for America," Ryuujou declared, thumping her scroll on the ground angrily. As the only fuda-using carrier present, Ryuujou had attracted a lot of unwanted attention from the American while on the line. She was understandably worried about all the notes that had been taken on her. "If they want Kanmusu so much, they should go get their own."

"Agreed. Fighting for another country when our own is still under threat is distasteful enough as it is," Kaga stated. "However, these are our orders from our Admirals. If they bid us to serve under an American, as loyal Kanmusu of the Japanese Navy it is our duty to do so, despite our or own misgivings in the matter."

"Doesn't mean we have to like it," Zuikaku pointed out.

"As expected of a member of the Fifth Carrier Division."

"Now, now, Kaga-san. We're all friends here," Akagi said placatingly.

"Hm, wait a moment. Does she even know how to handle a bow?" Taihou interrupted, suddenly causing all the carriers to sit up and take notice. "I mean, she's taking down a lot of notes on that tablet of hers... but does she even know what she's doing?"

It suddenly occurred to the carriers that Swanson was indeed tapping away on her tablet computer with incredible speed, noting down what seemed to be dozens of detailed observations on the Shouhou sisters. She was clearly hard at work... however that incident earlier where Kaga had 'corrected' Swanson about Zuikaku's little slip up was still fresh in all their minds.

For all they knew, she was hard at work taking down notes that were _all wrong_. How was that going to look when she handed it over to the Admiral for his inspection?

"...Maybe someone should go talk to her." Souryuu gulped. "What if it's full of errors?"

"You want to help her steal one of us?" Ryuujou asked incredulously.

"Well if she's going to steal one of us anyway, shouldn't we at least make sure it's an educated decision? What if the rumours are right and she's sending us to do something dangerous?" Souryuu reasoned worriedly.

"Maybe that is a good idea," Taihou noted nervously. "You know how some of us look good on paper but have some serious problems out in the field? What if she gets the wrong idea?"

"You worry about those fuel tanks of yours far too much, Taihou," Ryuujou sighed.

"I can't help it! That's how I sunk the last time. What if she gets the wrong idea about me being an armoured aircraft carrier and uses me as a shield?"

"Calm yourself, Taihou. Any decision she makes will have to go through the Admirals first," Kaga pointed out. "Thus, even if she is a complete incompetent in Kyudo, any bad decision she makes will be vetoed. Have faith in the wisdom of our Admirals."

"I'd have more confidence in that if those Admirals you have so much faith in weren't also complicit in this," Zuikaku pointed out dourly.

"And that is the only reason why I am tolerating this farce."

"You girls do realize that I can hear every word coming out of your mouths, right?" Swanson said, without even looking up from her tablet, startling all the gossiping Kanmusu.

Evidently, they hadn't been as quiet as they'd thought. Worse still, while Swanson seemed to be busy with her tablet, Yamato was looking at them with undisguised anger, and the Shouhou sisters, who had stopped shooting, were watching the unfolding drama with worry.

Caught in the act, the eight waiting carriers looked among each other awkwardly, all unwilling to take the first action after having being found out. They were all too happy with talking behind Swanson's, but when confronted the Kanmusu were understandably ashamed at what they had done. Even Kaga seemed at a loss for words.

Zuikaku however, was able to swallow her wounded pride and confront her accuser.

"We were discussing a problem that we feel is of utmost importance to your observations, _Commander_ ," Zuikaku stated evenly, as she forced herself to calm her racing heart. The eyes of the watching Kanmusu focused on her, but none dared interfere.

For better or worse, Zuikaku was in the spotlight now. She would have to tread carefully. She'd already gone up against Swanson once before and had come away worse for it. That could not be allowed to happen again.

She would NOT end up like Tenryuu.

"We've noticed that you've been taking down a lot of notes about our training. However, we were not confident in the accuracy of the observations in your report," Zuikaku explained slowly, articulating each point as carefully as she could, as her mind raced to find a solution.

"You think I have no idea what I am doing," Yvonne stated bluntly, cutting to the heart of the matter.

Zuikaku cursed. Conversation, especially one such as this, was never her strong point. However she'd be damned if she wouldn't go down without a fight!

"We were merely concerned about your ability to understand our training methods," Zuikaku continued, well aware she was talking out of her ass the entire time. "America doesn't have any Kanmusu yet, so you might not understand what we are trying to accomplish here with Kyudo."

"I _have_ done my homework about carriers, Zuikaku. Houshou _did_ write a very definitive manual for ship girl carriers."

"That is so. However we are concerned that you do not fully appreciate the more spiritual aspects of our training, outside of military procedures." Zuikaku raised her left hand, her hand still wrapped around her bow. "Kyudo is the traditional martial art of the Japanese people in the use of the bow. It has more benefits than just learning how to shoot. The form we practice in particular poses a greater emphasis on the moral and spiritual development that makes us more effective in battle."

"Oh, really?" That caught Swanson's attention. The woman turned away from her tablet to regard Zuikaku with a challenging look, a cocky smirk playing on her lips.

"Um, pardon me for repeating what Kaga said earlier, but Kyudo is not just 'archery' as you westerners understand it," Zuikaku reiterated. For good measure, she decided to throw in some humour. "Your country doesn't have the long tradition of Archery that our country does. Besides, it's not something an American Navy officer would need to learn, right?"

"You want to put a bet on that?"

"Huh?"

"Hey, Yamato. Hold the fort for me will you? I'm going back to my room to grab a few things." Swanson tapped Yamato's shoulder as she went past, her mouth having curved into a wide, almost mischievous, grin.

"Commander? May I ask what's going on?" Yamato asked, voicing out the confusion that had now taken over every single Kanmusu in the archery range.

"Remember that thing I was talking about this morning? I'm going to get it," Swanson declared as she walked towards the exit. The American was so excited, there was actually a spring in her step. "Wait right here, I'll be back in a moment."

Then Swanson was gone, leaving a lot of very confused Kanmusu in her wake.

It didn't take very long for all their eyes to settle on a nervous looking Zuikaku, still sitting down on the bench with her bow in her hands.

"Okay, what did I just do?"

* * *

The atmosphere after Swanson's departure was tense.

No one had any idea what to make of this recent development, especially since nobody knew what had been going through Swanson's mind when she took off like that. All they could do was wait until the woman returned, to find out just what she was up to.

For a good while, it seemed like the carriers would be waiting in silence for the American to return.

At least, that was until Yamato made her displeasure with their behaviour known.

"As the representative of the Japanese Navy attached to the Commander, I must say that, I, Yamato, am very disappointed in all of you," Yamato said, her lips tightening into a displeased frown. "Commander Swanson is a guest at our base and an ally. We should treat her with the respect and dignity she is due."

"That's pretty hard to do since she's trying to take us out from under our Admiral." Zuikaku pointed out. "You may be okay with it since you haven't had anything to do, but we carriers are running a very tight ship here. There's plenty of ocean and only so many of us."

"I understand your grievances, but to complain within earshot of her?"

"That was our mistake. We'll apologize later," Akagi said aloud, eliciting murmurs of agreement from several other carriers, Zuikaku included. However Kaga was not among them.

"I am confused, Yamato," Kaga said with a piercing gaze, her face stony. "How can you tolerate serving under that American?"

Much like when Zuikaku had spoken up to Swanson, this time all eyes were on Kaga.

However, unlike before where Zuikaku was attempting to talk their way out of trouble, this time there was a sinking suspicion that Kaga was heading straight for it, on her own free will no less!

"I am afraid that I do not follow," Yamato said.

"You, of all people, must know what the Americans did to us," Kaga replied. "Every single one of us here was sunk during the war by them. Have you forgotten that?"

Zuikaku, and every other Kanmusu privy to the conversation, winced.

The war was a touchy subject for all of them. Kaga just had to go and bring that up!

"That war was a long time ago." Yamato's frown deepened, and everyone could feel the anger and animosity that now radiated off her being. "Times have changed. The Abyssals are our enemies now, and the Americans worthy allies who have bled for us."

"I disagree. We all have memories of dying at the hands of Americans," Kaga's eyes flicked over to Akagi, before settling back onto Yamato. "The memories of our comrades and countrymen dying. The devastation and humiliation of our country... Such things are not so easily forgotten, Yamato."

"Perhaps. But it is also due to their aid that Japan is where it is today: a prosperous and wealthy nation, even in these tough times. Have you already forgotten the sacrifices made by the American Navy while we were in training? The only reason we continue to hold Okinawa was because of their actions. At very least, we have to respect that," Yamato retorted.

"The Americans had the largest Navy in the world and were its self-appointed police force. The casualties they suffered were proportional to the territory they held. Any other Navy would have done the same in their place. As for Okinawa, it was a point of pride for them to prevent it from falling, more than their wish to protect Japan's interests."

And off the pair went. Yamato and Kaga were both too proud to concede any one point. As it progressed it seemed the pair were becoming more and more entrenched in their positions. Battleship and fleet carrier, both too stubborn to give any ground.

Zuikaku and the other carriers were stuck as a captive audience to a debate that was becoming increasingly awkward and heated.

"She just had to bring up the war, didn't she?" Zuikaku asked acidly.

 _Stupid_ First Carrier Division.

"Uh, this is getting a little heated. Should we leave?" Hiryuu whispered to the other carriers, who were steadily edging away from where Kaga was sitting.

"I don't think we can. Commander Swanson is going to come back sooner or later," Taihou said, "so uh, anyone want to try breaking them up?"

"Oh _hell no_. You want me to get in between a battleship and a fleet carrier? You're nuts, buddy." Ryuujou held out both her hands hopelessly. "You're an armoured carrier, _you_ try referee."

"I don't think all the armour in the world is going to help if I get in between those two!"

"This is bad. They're really into it. I don't think even Akagi can talk down Kaga at this point." Shoukaku turned to the fleet carrier in question, who simply replied by shaking her head. There was no stopping the two.

All Zuikaku and her comrades could do was sit tight and hope that it didn't come to any blows.

"The Americans are using Japanese Navy as a shield while they rebuild their own forces. That in itself demonstrates that they are not trustworthy. They do not have our best interests in mind, as that action is inherently self-serving," Kaga stated firmly.

"And we used them as a shield beforehand. We are simply repaying a debt. Besides, five of our number being stationed to protect civilian population centres is a worthy endeavour that _any_ soldier, regardless of nationality, should aspire to," Yamato countered. Both her hands were on her parasol, now folded and pointed down, as if it were a sword in her grasp.

"Not when our own borders are unsecure."

"The Japanese mainland is clear of Abyssal presence."

"And what of their holdings in the South China Sea? What about South East Asia? What about the millions of refugees who have been displaced? Over a dozen nations who have been forced out by the Abyssals?" Kaga's hold on her bow had tightened to a white knuckled grip. "I have _seen_ the suffering of these people with my own eyes, Yamato. Have you?"

"Command's reluctance to deploy me into battle is not the subject of this discussion, Kaga."

"Perhaps. But it does not change the truth. These countries, these people, depend on us to win back their homes for them, yet we _dally_ by protecting people from across the sea who have not experienced the hardships they have had. You said yourself, that there is no nobler goal of a soldier to protect innocents. There are innocents at our doorstep calling for our help, help we do not offer because we are too busy trying to fulfill America's demands – an effort we only make on the promise that America will one day come to their rescue."

"And they will hold to that promise," Yamato said, her eyes cold as steel.

"Or so they say," Kaga returned, her gaze unwavering. "It has been a _year_ , Yamato."

It was clear that there would be no accord between the two warships. Worse, it seemed like the two were about to come to blows! The other Kanmusu looked at the pair, unable to intervene.

As it turned out, nobody needed to.

"The range is hot."

Everyone, Yamato and Kaga included, started.

Swanson had re-entered the range while everyone was distracted, set down a large black case she had brought with her, taken out the bow contained within it and then just when the two warships had been about to escalate things, spoken up to get their attention. Then she proceeded to fire off three arrows, held in her draw hand, at one of the fifty meter targets in less than a second, in a spectacular display of skill and control.

Three arrows found their mark near the bullseye.

The range was silent.

"Christ on a cracker. I leave for fifteen minutes and you guys almost start a shooting war while I was gone. It's a good thing I got back here in time," Yvonne sighed, setting the bow down.

"Commander Swanson!" Yamato pivoted to face her superior and bowed repeatedly. "I'm sorry for-"

"Where the hell did you get that? It looks _fucking awesome!_ "

For one glorious moment, Zuikaku thought someone else had spoken up. Some unfortunate poor fool who had blurted out the most stupid thing that anyone could possibly say at that very moment.

Then the realization hit her, and Zuikaku knew she had managed to embarrass herself yet again. Zuikaku lowered her face into her free hand and groaned, eliciting several amused chuckles from the Kanmusu around her.

Really, where had all her luck gone? She was supposed to be a lucky ship, damn it, and Yukikaze was all the way over in Maizuru. This kind of crap shouldn't be happening to her!

Thankfully, Swanson didn't seem to mind. In fact, the American seemed positively delighted someone had asked.

"Oh this? Glad you asked," Swanson walked up to the waiting area and held the thirty two inch long object in her arms out for the assembled Kanmusu to see.

"This is my Bowtech Experience Bow. I only just bought it less than two months ago. It's a binary cam compound bow designed for hunting game, and the culmination of over a decade of experimentation, design and trial and error. It is accurate, smooth, reliable and silent as death," Swanson exulted, as she turned the bow around in her hands, presenting every possible angle of the bow to the Kanmusu. "This is thing is a thing of beauty, and easily one of the _best_ hunting bows in the world. Let me walk you all through it."

What followed was an experience that Zuikaku could only describe as 'eye opening'.

Every single one of the Kanmusu, from Yamato to Kaga, was utterly captivated by what Swanson had brought to show them. None of them had used anything other daikyūs or hankyūs during their archery training, and seeing this was a shock to the system indeed.

Truth be told, Zuikaku had never seen a real compound bow before. Her training in Kyudo had been very traditional, and the Japanese Navy hadn't been in a particular hurry to innovate where they didn't need to. Her traditional Japanese hankyū bow had served her well in all her battles, and she had seen no need for any alternatives.

Before today, Zuikaku had never thought you could make the bow a more effective weapon than it already was – it was a design that had reached its pinnacle during the Sengoku period, and had then been supplanted by firearms. There had been no need to further develop an obsolete weapon.

Then this thing had come along.

Swanson began walking them through the intricacies of her personal weapon, clearly very proud of it. Zuikaku could see why.

It had integrated silencers and dampeners to eliminate the sound made when firing. It had piston based stabilizers to improve accuracy. It had two separate sighting systems depending on what he wielder was aiming at. It had an advanced arrow rest that could be reconfigured on the fly. It had a bow-mounted quiver for easy access to twelve arrows.

Basically, it had gotten to the point where Zuikaku wouldn't be surprised if Swanson up and declared it could launch fighter planes. It was that amazing. While the other carriers watched in silence, Zuikaku actively quizzed Swanson about the weapon, trying to understand it as best she could.

"Is it completely silent?" Zuikaku asked.

"Not completely. There's still the sound of the air whipping during the release, but the reduction in sound is substantial, especially during the draw. Very good while you're stalking prey, since they never hear you coming."

"And the stabilizer? Does it really do what you say it does?"

"Improve accuracy? Oh yeah, it does. If I'm honest, it actually took a little getting used to because I was used to compensating for a bow's natural movement at first, but after a while it was great."

"And what's with that quiver?"

"The quiver? It's actually my favorite bit."

Swanson grinned as she picked up the bow mounted quiver and rotated it 90 degrees until it was horizontal, with the arrow shafts now perpendicular to the draw string. With a snap, it locked in place. She then pushed the arrows forward until only the rear end of the shafts were near the drawstring. Zuikaku realized that the arrows were in a position where they wouldn't get in the way of the shooter, but were still easily within reach of the draw hand.

"This quiver doesn't come standard by the way: I custom machined it myself on my own free time. Great when I'm speed shooting."

"You Americans developed _this?_ " Zuikaku said excitedly, leaning in to inspect every corner of the bow. "I thought you people were all gun nuts!"

"We're _weapon_ nuts. The right to bear arms extends to all weapons, including more traditional ones. It's just that guns are more effective in the modern age, hence why they're normally associated with the 2nd Amendment," Swanson explained with a smile. "My friend Dakota is a hard-core gun nut though. If you really want to talk shop with her, I can introduce you."

"No thanks. I'm good with what I'm looking at." Zuikaku couldn't help but look at the compound bow and mentally compare it against her own equipment.

Sure, her hankyū had served her well in its current configuration, but some of the advancements and innovations on this thing were amazing! The bow mounted quiver alone had possibilities she hadn't even considered before!

Clearly this was something that every one of Japan's carriers should look into!

"This... thing is an over engineered toy that would never be of use in a real battle," Kaga stated bluntly, her arms folded. "Typical American posturing."

Well. Almost everyone.

"Kaga, seriously?" Taihou groaned.

"I am merely stating my opinion," Kaga defended herself, before turning to a slightly put off Swanson, "What she did earlier was trick shot archery, impractical in actual combat."

"Hey, just because I did a trick shot earlier doesn't mean I'm not familiar with other forms of archery," Swanson protested, "This is a _hunting_ bow after all. It's designed to _hunt_ stuff. Besides, don't you know how hard it is do trick shooting with a compound bow designed for hunting?"

"Perhaps. But is there any point in you bringing this... 'Bowtech Experience' contraption here?"

"Well yes, actually." Swanson jabbed a thumb at Zuikaku. "Zuikaku said that I didn't know my way around bows and had no idea what I was doing. I figured rather than going to the Admiral with another complaint or get into another pointless argument, I'd just grab my own bow and prove her wrong in a good old fashioned shoot out. How's that for 'posturing'?"

"Ehh?!" came the simultaneous cry of the assembled Kanmusu.

"Of course we'll be using regular arrows," Swanson clarified, "but the point stands."

"What, like a competition?" Zuikaku questioned.

"Well, no. I was just thinking that it was a little insulting that I was just standing around taking notes while you girls did all the work, so I figure why don't I break out my own bow and join you?" Swanson explained with a smile, walking over to hand her tablet to Yamato, "The whole point of this exercise is so that I can evaluate you girls, and what better way for me to do that than by actually joining in on the training?"

* * *

It didn't take very long for Swanson to establish the new regime. Whereas before she had been standing back as a mere observer watching the carriers, Swanson had instead joined the shooters at the line. Unlike before, where they stuck to a prescribed training regimen two at a time, Swanson had opted for a more casual approach. Each carrier would take a turn shooting a number of stationary targets with her for fifteen minutes in a one on one session.

The pace was entirely up to the carrier; it could be as competitive or relaxed as they wanted.

Then once their turn was over, she'd call for a five minute break where the arrows were retrieved, and another carrier would be called up, and Swanson would do it all over again.

The most curious thing though, was that Swanson would have a chat with the shooter while they causally fired at the targets. The topics ranged wildly, from anything from swapping 'war stories', what life was like in Kure naval base, why Ryuujou had decided to use a paper talismans instead of a bow, or even about what they planned to do when the war was over.

It didn't take a genius to understand what she was doing, and Zuikaku couldn't be helped but be mildly impressed.

Much like how many Kanmusu were viewing the Americans in general, Zuikaku had pegged Swanson as one of those 'armchair general types' who were out of touch with what was really happening on the ground. This was made worse by the fact that Swanson was an intelligence officer, someone Zuikaku believed would stay away from the front lines as far as possible. It was easy to believe that Swanson didn't have an idea on what was really going on in the war.

It was harder to believe that now.

"Well, this is really odd. I'm honestly not sure what's going on anymore," Shoukaku remarked, as the two carriers of the Fifth Carrier Division sat on the bench, waiting for their turn.

"She's taken us golfing," Zuikaku informed her sister, in a grudgingly respectful tone.

"Golfing?"

"Golfing. You know the sport the Admiral likes to do with his friends?" Zuikaku shook her head, marveling at the brilliance of it. "She realized that we weren't acclimatizing to her presence well, so she changed it up by putting us in a more relaxed environment."

The simplicity of it was astounding. Swanson had recognized that her acting as an external evaluator had put the Kanmusu on guard. They had reacted badly to her presence, and indeed their performance might have been affected, since they all knew what she was there to do.

By choosing to shoot with them at the line while having a conversation, Swanson had eliminated that barrier. She'd already gotten a good read on their individual skills from the first round. Now Swanson was evaluating their personalities, their beliefs, their work ethic... soft skills that would determine how they each would individually function in a team.

The best part was that, between shooting at the targets and carrying on a conversation with Swanson, it was all too easy to forget that they were still being evaluated.

"I may have underestimated the woman a bit," Zuikaku admitted grudgingly, as she watched Swanson describe what Michelin Stars were to Akagi, who had dropped all pretence of even trying to shoot her bow and was openly salivating at what she was hearing.

"Well, she certainly knows how to handle people," Shoukaku said.

"Hey Fifth Div." Zuikaku and Shoukaku turned to look at Zuihou, who had shuffled over to them. The young carrier seemed pensive, clearly thinking deeply about something. "Do you know what 'Melancholic' means?"

Zuikaku and Shoukaku shared a confused look before turning back to the young carrier.

"Um, in what way?"

"Well, when I was shooting with her earlier, I mentioned one of the destroyers who I work with." Zuihou explained. "Wakaba-chan is always so distant with everyone even though we try very hard to get her involved. So I asked Swanson-san for help."

"You asked her for help?" Shoukaku said.

"Well, yes. I figured that since Shouhou-nee was having such a nice time talking with Swanson-san about life in Kure, I could ask her if she had any advice on how to deal with Wakaba-chan," Zuihou continued., "So I told her all about it, and she said that Wakaba-chan was a 'Melancholic' 'Choleric' person and was one of those 'lone wolf types'."

"Choleric, what?" Shoukaku and Zuikaku echoed simultaneously.

"Something about 'the four temperaments' or something," Zuihou nodded. "Swanson-san said that trying to force her to be a team player wasn't the right way to go about with dealing with her, as part of our fleet. I thought it was very interesting."

"Where does she even come up with this?" Zuikaku had never even heard the word before!

"She was telling me about looking into personality types and management styles to better understand the Kanmusu I'm working with," Zuihou explained, "She suggested that we should try to use her personality traits, instead of forcing her to do things she's uncomfortable with, like allocating her missions that she could focus on without distractions. I thought it was very interesting and wondered if anyone else has heard of it before."

"Well this is news to me," Zuikaku said, with Shoukaku nodding in agreement.

"She does seem very well read," Shoukaku reasoned.

"Yeah, she is!" Zuihou nodded happily. "She talked to Taihou about her crossbow, Hiryuu about the various fighter planes from the war, Ryuujou about breast envy..." Zuikaku and Shoukaku came down with sudden coughing fits, but Zuihou didn't seem to notice. "She knows lots of things! I'm very impressed."

"Y-yeah. I guess that's impressive. In a lot of ways," Zuikaku wheezed. Unbelievable, that woman was able to talk about that with a straight face!

"Hey, I wonder what she's going to talk with the two of you about," Zuihou said, seemingly having not noticed the pair's loss of composure. "You're going last, right Zuikaku? Since you were the one who spoke up earlier, she must have something in mind for you!"

Now _that_ thought was a sobering one.

Zuikaku hadn't forgotten that she'd spoken out earlier, when Swanson had caught the carriers gossiping about her behind her back. Kaga might have been the most confrontational critic, but Zuikaku had managed to single herself out. It was likely that their topic would be about that. Add to the fact that she was the last archer, a deliberate choice on Swanson's part, it was likely that the conversation that she was going to have with the American would be anything _but_ casual.

Worse still, as evidenced by Zuihou's question, it was likely that every carrier was well aware of this fact and would probably be watching. It was not going to be pretty.

"Yeah, she has something in mind for me alright," Zuikaku concluded.

* * *

It was well past noon when it was finally Zuikaku's turn to step up. Lunch was a little overdue by this point, and had this been an ordinary day, the carrier would be quite eager to finish up the session and get something to eat.

This wasn't an ordinary day.

A hush descended over the range as Zuikaku walked slowly and purposefully up to her spot in her lane. Swanson was standing one lane over, waiting with her own bow, filled quivers full of arrows on both her bow and her back. All eyes were on the two archers as they made their final preparations. The friendly practice session feeling was lost: it was now a showdown at high noon.

Safe to say, no one was hungry.

Not even Akagi.

"So, I've been shooting for over two hours now," Swanson remarked casually. "Still think I don't know anything about archery, now?"

"Okay, I will admit you have _some_ skill." Zuikaku admitted grudgingly, with a hint of playfulness.

If there was one thing Swanson had managed to prove decisively, it was that she was no amateur. While she hadn't practiced Kyudo as Zuikaku understood it, it was clear by this point that Swanson was in fact _very_ experienced with the bow. For two hours, she'd matched the carriers shot for shot, without once losing concentration or accuracy, all the while carrying on a dynamic, ever changing conversation with a partner, with only minor breaks in between.

Her endurance, concentration and self-control were impressive, to say the least.

"Who taught you how to shoot?" Zuikaku asked curiously.

"When I first started? I trained with a few members of the US National Archery team. After that, well..." Swanson shrugged, as she drew the first arrow of her bow quiver. "So do you want to go simultaneously, or...?"

"Take turns. You first," Zuikaku specified as she drew her own arrow, but allowed it to lay limp in the draw string, waiting for Swanson to go first.

"Okay then." Swanson notched her arrow and, much to Zuikaku's surprise, started to go through the eight stages of shooting... flawlessly. For the first time since practice began, Swanson didn't speak, instead dedicating herself mind and body to a single goal: striking the target. Her stance was perfect. Her motions fluid, yet measured. Fast, yet unhurried.

When she released the arrow, her aim was true.

Silence reigned. No one moved. No one even breathed. Not even when Swanson completed the Yudaoshi, the lowering of the bow after the shot.

It was undeniable to everyone in the range that Yvonne Swanson wasn't just an adept: they were in the presence of a master of the art.

At last, Zuikaku broke the silence.

"You studied Kyudo."

"It was recommended to me by a good authority, so I figured 'why not'?" Swanson shrugged. "Still a bit of a show off though. Your turn."

Zuikaku should have felt embarrassed. This was yet another time she'd been shown up by the American. Zuikaku's accusation that Swanson didn't have any idea what she had been doing had now fallen flat on its face, and everyone had seen it happen.

However, this time, something was different. Zuikaku could feel it in every fibre of her soul. The second that Swanson had loosed that arrow, it was as if a challenge had been issued, one that Zuikaku could not refuse. It was as if something had overcome her, guiding her every action.

The placing of her footing. The balancing of her weight. The readying and then the raising of the bow. The drawing of the arrow... Before she knew it, Zuikaku was lowing her own bow, her arrow already embedded in the target adjacent to the one Swanson had hit.

Bullseye.

"Hm, not bad," Swanson nodded approvingly.

"I think that counts as shots fired," Ryuujou said from somewhere behind them. "Like, literally."

Zuikaku agreed. She turned to Swanson, her blood up and a small smirk playing on her lips.

"Your turn."

The two settled into a steady rhythm, each archer taking one shot then waiting for the other to respond, then taking another shot. To those watching, it was a rivalry between two extremely capable bowwomen, worthy opponents matching each other, shot for shot. Even Kaga seemed humbled by what was happening before her eyes.

That didn't mean that Swanson wasn't talking with Zuikaku though, for their conversation filled in between each drawing of an arrow from the quiver and each lowing of the bow after every shot.

"I know what you're here for," Zuikaku stated bluntly, cutting to the very heart of the matter. "You want to take a carrier for you mission."

"Yes, I do think it's very clear at this point what I'm after," Swanson had responded smoothly. "I also think it's very apparent that you and a number of your colleagues aren't happy about that."

"Why should we be? This wasn't what we signed up to do when we became Kanmusu."

"And I sympathize with that. You want to protect your home," Swanson conceded. "No one here is questioning your bravery. But there is more at stake."

"Spare me the whole 'we're all in this together' speech that your President is so fond of making. We all know the Abyssals are everywhere. What I don't get is why you're inconveniencing _us_ , especially when the Atlantic fleet has so much more leeway now that the Mediterranean is clear."

"Hm, so you do think about what's going on. Interesting. As to your question, because I have to. Do you think the Admiral would allow me to have so many of your number, if my mission wasn't of the utmost importance?"

"It would help if you actually _told_ us about what you're up to."

"Well, I did say that I was supposed to be looking into the origins of the Abyssal fleet, didn't I?"

"And that requires for you to start poaching our Kanmusu? I thought that was an exercise in analysis?"

"I do need people to do my footwork for me, you know. Hence why I need a team."

"Your team?" Zuikaku scoffed. "You do realize that we're all on loan from the Japanese Navy right?"

"Well, I am in touch with a guy from Germany at trying to get a U-Boat. Last time I checked, U-38 volunteered and was on her way over from Europe."

Zuikaku had actually done a double take at that.

"You're looking for a submarine too?"

"Yeah. Carriers are a task force's teeth, surface escorts are its armor, and submarines are its eyes and ears. Submarines win wars, and the Germans have the best, so I went to them. The funny part is that when the German Admiral found out about it, he asked one of his girls and one of them straight up volunteered. Strange you guys are giving me so much trouble in comparison," Swanson quipped. "But the point is that they volunteered. That's how important it is."

That revelation silenced Zuikaku, making her think on the implications of what Swanson had said.

"Your mission is much bigger than just the Pacific, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Swanson affirmed. "You know the old saying about 'know yourself and know thy enemy, a hundred battles you will not lose'? I need to know the enemy. The problem is I don't have everything I need yet, and that's why I'm over here in Yokosuka, looking for the best of the best and the bravest of the brave."

"I'm flattered that you think that's us."

"Yep ,that's you girls... well except for the U-Boat though. When it comes to submarines, I think those guys have _everyone_ beat."

"Hm, true that."

"Well, you girls did give us a hell of a fight back in the war," Swanson joked. "So, you interested? No guts, no glory and all that jazz?"

"Do I even have a choice?"

"Sure you do, why do you think I'm even asking?"

"You've decided on me," Zuikaku realized with a frown. That summation elicited several surprised gasps from the assembled carriers. Zuikaku stopped shooting and turned to face Swanson, who was studying her with intense eyes. By this point they were coming up on the fifteen minute mark, but it seemed like their conversation was going to run a little over time.

"Yeah, pretty much," Swanson replied, similarly lowering her bow.

This was the crux of the matter, the entire reason why they were even here in the first place. Swanson had wanted to find one carrier to serve as the centrepiece of her battlegroup. After everything that had happened, she had decided on Zuikaku.

"May I ask why?"

Zuikaku wanted to know what had caused Swanson to reach this conclusion. As confident as Zuikaku felt in her own abilities, she knew that there were a myriad of reasons why she wasn't the best carrier in the Japanese Navy. As much as it wounded her pride to admit it, Zuikaku knew Kaga and Akagi were the more experienced and more accurate archers. Shoryuu and Hiryuu were both very formidable in their own way. Taihou had a much more effective weapon, and a formidable combat record to boot. The list went on.

Yet Swanson wanted Zuikaku, a girl she seemed prone to disagreeing with.

"Well for starters, you have a good head on your shoulders," Swanson explained. "A little rash and rough around the edges, but you clearly can think when you want to. Stubborn, aggressive and egoistic, to be sure, but I like that in my girls. Gives them drive."

"I'm not the only one who has a brain here. More to the point, you _do_ realize that we've been butting heads this entire time, right?" Zuikaku pointed out.

"And I find that _refreshing_." Swanson waved a hand towards the benches where the other carriers were watching the exchange with rapt attention. "Everyone here doesn't like what I'm doing, but none of them had the courage to say it to my face when I confronted you."

"I didn't _exactly_ say it to your face."

"But you came close enough," Swanson shrugged. "Listen Zuikaku. If I wanted a good carrier I'd have asked for Kaga. Frankly speaking, she's a better shot than you and will probably listen to my orders even if she doesn't like them... but I'm not looking for just a carrier. I want someone who can work with and contribute to my team in a meaningful way."

"...oh crap. You _liked_ it when I disagreed with you," Zuikaku muttered, wondering if the woman was some sort of masochist.

"Well, you disagreed on all the points that counted... and not just on principle," Swanson affirmed as she raised her bow for Zuikaku to see. "You were also pretty open to new ideas as well, something that I'm going to need in my line of work."

It was all coming together now. Zuikaku knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had somehow managed to become Swanson's first choice of carrier for her team, and it had been entirely because of her own doing.

She should be displeased. This was the very eventuality that Zuikaku had tried hard to avoid. Her reassignment would leave a hole in their deployment, and Shoukaku would have to brave the war on her own until Zuikaku could return. By all rights, Zuikaku should have been upset.

Instead, Zuikaku was intrigued.

"If I say no, what would you do?" Zuikaku queried.

"Well, then I'd have no choice but to go with Kaga," Swanson stated honestly. "Not my first choice, mind you, but I do need a carrier at the end of the day. She has the skill, but the attitude is something that leaves a lot to be desired."

 _That's putting it mildly_ , Zuikaku thought.

"This mission... what do you need us for exactly?" Zuikaku asked. "Could you give me a rough estimate?"

"How about I make you a deal. I'll tell you if you sign up," Swanson smirked. "So, you interested?"

And it was time to make her decision.

Much like earlier when she had used Kyudo to bait Zuikaku, Swanson's offer had thrown down a proverbial gauntlet. It was a challenge from one equal to another.

"Do you think you have what it takes to be on my team?"

Zuikaku could see the bait for what it was, but was finding it very hard to summon the will to resist. So she didn't.

"What the hell do you think?"

* * *

"Briefing is tomorrow at twelve hundred hours, sharp," Yamato informed Zuikaku later. "The other members of the task force, namely Lieutenant Matsuda, Tenryuu and Destroyer Division Six, will be there. You will receive the full briefing then."

Things had wrapped up pretty quickly after Zuikaku had accepted Swanson's offer to join her team. The other carriers, save Shoukaku who hung around to wait for Zuikaku, had quickly marched off to grab a belated lunch. Swanson had actually left with them to tell the Admiral and finalize the paperwork involved, leaving Yamato to tie up the few remaining loose ends.

It occurred to Zuikaku that, knowing the Yokosuka grapevine, news of what had happened would likely spread around the base before long. She wasn't looking forward to weathering all the questions that were bound to come that was for sure.

"So you aren't going to tell me what the mission is about, even now that I'm already on it?" Zuikaku huffed, wondering what she'd actually agreed to. "She did say that was part of the deal."

"Well, I am still around, so maybe she can't just yet," Shoukaku pointed out.

Yamato produced a folded slip of paper from her sailor top. "Commander Swanson gave me this before she left. It's for your eyes only, so be sure to destroy it after you've read it."

"Nice!" Zuikaku exclaimed as she accepted the paper. Finally, she would find out what all the fuss was about. She turned to Shoukaku, only to see her sister had taken a step back.

"It's for you, Zuikaku. Commander Swanson has placed a lot of trust in you by giving you that before the transfer is official. We should respect that," Shoukaku said with a proud smile.

Zuikaku had been surprised by how proud Shoukaku was of her and her assignment, even though they'd be separated for a time. Still, it warmed her heart to know her older sister thought so highly of her.

"Well if you say so, Shoukaku-nee," Zuikaku nodded, then opened and quickly read the hastily written message Swanson had left for her. The message was rather straightforward:

 _-We're going to capture an Abyssal commander, interrogate it for everything it knows, and find out where those bastards came and then bomb it to kingdom come. You're now the flagship of the capture team. How's that for an important job?-_

Zuikaku lowered the message. There was only one thing she could say in response.

"Shit... why didn't she just _say_ so?"

* * *

"So, you've decided on Zuikaku?" The Admiral looked up to regard Yvonne, who was now standing at attention before his desk once more. He had had coincidentally been handling the last of the paperwork regarding Tenryuu and Matsuda, when she had walked in with her request to appropriate a carrier.

They'd both known it was coming of course, but it seemed that the Admiral was surprised that she'd come to a decision this quickly.

"That is correct, Admiral."

"You certainly aren't wasting any time. I'm surprised you went with Zuikaku. I'd have picked Kaga or Akagi. More sea time, more experience, more skill. More kills," the Admiral mused. "Probably Kaga. She's more driven."

"I believe that she will work better with the team I've already assembled,Sir," Yvonned stated honestly. "Besides, from what I've seen Kaga and Akagi aren't that much more capable than Zuikaku, and well... there's an old saying in naval aviation that I'm quite fond of."

"Really? What is it?"

"Never trade luck for skill," Yvonne said with a wry smile. "I hear that Zuikaku was a pretty lucky ship from back in the day, Admiral. I was thinking we could use some of that."

The Admiral looked at Yvonne with an astonished look for a moment, which she met easily. A few short seconds passed before the two officers shared a good natured chuckle.

"You are a very _interesting_ person, Commander Swanson," the Admiral nodded appreciatively. "I have never seen anyone with a command and managerial style like yours. Changing the program to one to one sessions was pretty smart."

"Oh, you've heard about that, Sir?"

"Word gets around very quickly on this base. I never would have thought of that. You have a way with Kanmusu. That's more than I can say for some of our officers," the Admiral commented.

"I'm just lucky I decided to pick up a bow as a hobby, instead of going with a rifle," Yvonne admitted.

Truthfully, her decision to take up the bow was something that annoyed her friends back in America, all of whom preferred different types of firearms.

"Guns are American," they'd said.

"You should use a gun," they'd said.

Ha! Yvonne couldn't wait to call Dakota up and rub it in her face!

"It's a pity you're with the United States Navy. You're a natural at handling these girls, which is more than I can say for some of our officers. I wouldn't object to you serving in my command," the Admiral added.

"Thank you for the compliment, Sir."

"I'll have Zuikaku and the other transfers completed as soon as possible. It will probably take a few days for it to clear, but in the meantime, you can begin briefing your team on the specifics of the mission."

"Thank you, sir," Yvonne nodded.

She was still lacking the U-Boat she'd requested from the Germans, but for all effects and purposes the core of her team was assembled. She had a carrier and surface escorts, and even a proper 'Admiral' they'd listen to.

There was analysis and interviews that still needed doing, and she still needed to identify a target of opportunity and any possible weaknesses they could exploit, but all in all Yvonne was feeling very pleased with herself. She was making tangible progress towards her goal, and thus contributing to the war in a meaningful way. Indeed, given the way the Admrial seemed to regard her, he was of that same opinion.

That was all she ever wanted, to do her part and pull her weight.

Now that she had assembled her team, Yvonne felt that the real fight was about to begin.

"As for your U-Boat, I'll see to it that accommodations will be made for her when she arrives," the Admiral stated, turning back towards his paperwork, "we don't actually have too many submarines stationed here in Yokosuka so..."

"Admiral! Admiral, there's been a development!" The door slammed open as Nagato charged into the room, startling the naval officers. The woman was deathly pale, her shoulders actually shaking in fear.

"Nagato, what-"

"I apologize for the intrusion, Admiral, but there has been an urgent development in the European theatre that you must be aware of," Nagato said in a breathless, shaky voice. The battleship's legendary composure had fractured, and before them was a young women who had clearly experienced something that had shaken her to her core. "We... we just received an urgent communication from high command... a new kind of Abyssal has appeared."

"A new kind of Abyssal?" The Admiral rose from his desk, his earlier cheer displaced by his now grave features. "What did it do Nagato? What happened?"

Relevant questions indeed, for Nagato's state, the urgent communication from high command about events half a world away, and news about a new kind of Abyssal could only point to one thing.

Something had gone terribly wrong.

"A... a new kind of Abyssal appeared west of Brest during a rescue operation," Nagato informed them slowly. "It engaged elements of both the Royal Navy and the Deutsche Marine... Admiral, they've... it... it s-sank the Hood."

* * *

 **To be continued...**

* * *

 **Comrade Archivist Note:** The plot heats up.

As most people will see, the biggest change to this chapter has been an attempt to add some perspective to Kaga. Kaga's a pretty polarizing character, and Yvonne's POV-influenced third person narration doesn't do her any favors. One thing sasahara17 was trying to do was to show how people don't see things as they really are at the start, and how Yvonne's perspective is biased, but that was a little too subtle for a lot of the internet, so here we go.

Many thanks to Comrade Troll Admiral of the Committee, aka Sheo Darren, who was very helpful in making this story better. When you've stared at something a few hundred times you really need new eyes…

Thank you for reading, and for waiting patiently. At least you all haven't given up hope like poor Kaga! (I hope.)


	5. Interlude: Completely Indefatiguable

_Calm._

Darkness.

Peace.

Those were the things that she knew.

Those where the things that she was.

Adrift, formless, in an ocean of nothingness, there was no sense of time, direction or place.

And she was bored.

Retirement after going to the breakers was not what she had expected. Oblivion, perhaps. Peace, certainly. But boredom?

She was a warship.

She thrived on the thrill of battle, the thrill of the chase! The struggle on the edge of life and death! The triumph of a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat!

That was what she had lived for.

She had thought she would have been able to rest after her duty had been completed, but the fire, the need remained. The need for battle.

She wanted to fight once more… but alas, death was final. Forever she would remain here, in this formless peaceful, serene and boring afterlife, wondering why she had ever thought this might have been a good ide…a beat seemed to shake the foundations of her very being.

The rhythm continued, calling out to her, imploring her to answer.

It was a call to arms that she never forgot.

However, the drums continued to beat, its supernatural rhythm calling out to the core of her soul, reminding her of who she was and everything she stood for.

Duty.

Honor.

Courag-WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS TAKING SO LONG?

FINALLY!

FUN!

* * *

"HA-HA! I HAVE RETURNED!"

The Admiral and his staff stood at the edge of the pier, an entire military band behind them as they watched the newly revived girl they had summoned hop onto the pontoon from the water.

This had been a fairly standard summoning for them: a military band beating out a rhythm to call a departed spirit to battle, the Admiral himself waiting at the pier to receive her and even a couple of reporters from the media, just to document the summoning in case something truly special happened. Standard.

Except it wasn't.

Silence reigned. The band had stopped playing and had joined the Admiral and the reporters at looking at their jolly new addition to the ship girl fleet with stunned awe. More than a few jaws were hanging open. One man even pinched himself.

The arrival paid this no heed, happily bounding her way over to the assembly with a skip to her step.

"Jolly good to meet you all, chaps! Fine day in Portsmouth, innit?" The girl said with a laugh, placing her hands on her hips to pose heroically. "Tis I! HMS Indefatigable, scourge of the French and master of the Seas… reporting for duty, my good Admiral!"

The young brunette stood before this procession proud and confident, completely oblivious to the stares of incredulity her wood and sail rigging was drawing from the men and women around her.

"Um, Admiral, sir?" the Admiral's aide, a tall blonde young woman in a smart Royal Navy dress uniform, whispered into the man's ear. "Wasn't Indefatigable an aircraft carrier?"

"Wrong Indefatigable, George." The Admiral replied without taking his eyes off the jubilant ship girl. "I'll have to check, but I think we managed to summon the one Pellew had."

"You… you can't mean the 44 gun Razee? The one that took 27 ships as prizes during the Napoleonic wars?" the aide said with uncertainty.

"That's the one."

"SO! Who am I fighting this time?" Indefatigable's said with a wide grin. "Is it the French again? Oh I have been longing for a chance to kick their teeth in again! I haven't claimed a prize in a long, long time, and can't wait to get started!"

"Oh, dear god." A reporter in the background dropped his head into his hands and groaned.

"Now I know why Admiral Hartmann warned me about LSC," the Admiral shook his head sorrowfully. "All those crates of steel, barrels of ammunition… wasted."

"Well, sir. At least Temeraire is going to have company," the aide consoled her Admiral. "She has been rather bored being our public relations officer. Maybe she could help out?"

"Are we still allowed to take prizes? Oh how lovely if we are! Tell you what my good man: since you went through all the trouble of bringing me back, I'll go out and capture some French tart, just for you! I'll even gift wrap her with a bow for you?" Indefatigable threw her head back again, laughing boisterously. "Look out Frenchies, guard your underpants! Indefatigable is back!"

The Admiral on the other hand had gone quite pale… and to be honest, his dismay was shared by pretty much every other person on the dock.

"…I take back what I said about letting her near the media," The aide said with a sad shake of her head. She could already tell, keeping Indefatigable around was going to be a trial.

* * *

 **Kantai Collection: The Greatest Generation**

Interlude: Completely Indefatigable

* * *

 _Unfortunately for Indefatigable, and fortunately for the Royal Navy, she had not been allowed to leave port to conduct privateering on the French. The Marine Nationale were in fact allies of the Royal Navy after all. It simply would not do if Indefatigable went out and, against all odds, managed to truss up one of the French girls and deliver the poor lass to the doorstep of the First Sea Lord!_

 _So, using the fact that a wooden sailing ship girl in a war dominated by ones of steel and powered engines as a justification, the Royal Navy had carefully assigned Indefatigable to a supporting role._

 _It had been determined that the best use for Indefatigable would be her boundless energy and the fact had so enthusiastically responded to the call… and so someone in administration had cheerfully seconded the heavy frigate to the Royal Navy's public relations department (against King George V's protests of course). Just like the 'fighting Temeraire' before her, Indefatigable would show the world the dedication of Her Majesty's Ships for their willingness to come back from beyond to do battle!_

 _Besides, the fairies had crunched the numbers and found that 'scrapping' her would only yield wooden planks, cloth and ammunition in the form of cannon balls. That and the fact getting her to set sail only required rations of beer and biscuits, the Royal Navy had decided that they might as well see if she was any good at doing something helpful before making an irreversible decisions with regard to one of the few non-WWII ship girls to respond._

 _Of course, this did not sit well with Indefatigable at all._

 _Not one bit._

 _While Temeraire might have been content to remain as a glorified tour-guide aboard the HMS Victory the legendary frigate, scourge of the high seas, plunderer of the French and someone who simply did not know the meaning of 'give up' had bigger dreams._

* * *

"Indefatigable, what are you doing? What have you done?"

Temeraire's eyes almost jumped out of her sockets when she saw her fellow sailing ship casually walking down the pier to HMS _Warrior_ at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. This would not be an abnormal thing, for Indefatigable was supposed to be on duty at the Warrior exhibit today, the fact the frigate was in full sailing regalia with her rigging was a cause for alarm.

"Ah, Temeraire my good lady! Fine morning to you," Indefatigable greeted cheerfully as the panicked Second Rate rushed over to her. "Do not worry, my friend. I am just going out for a little stroll to test out some ideas I had that would let us rejoin the good fight!"

"You… you still haven't given up about that?!"

"Of course not," Indefatigable laughed. "Others of weaker fortitude might, but I on the other hand am made of far more resilient oak!"

Much like her name suggested, Indefatigable absolutely refused to give into desuetude (or reality for that matter). It seemed that the frigate was simply too stubborn, or too stupid as some speculated, to even consider the idea she was obsolete. She had kept coming up with scheme after scheme to make herself relevant again. What Temeraire was seeing was merely another attempt in a long history of disasters she had to put up with!

"So is that why you have a fan strapped behind your main sail?" Temeraire asked with a resigned expression as she pointed to the electric fan in question that was positioned strategically behind the main sail of Indefatigable's rigging.

"Oh, that? I took the idea from those fabulous new 'hovercraft' that were featured on the BBC a while ago," Indefatigable informed her friend proudly. "King George V told us one of the reasons why we couldn't be any good in a fight was because we were wind powered, not 'engine powered', and were too slow and clumsy to be any good in a real fight. I intend to rectify that with some good old fashioned British ingenuity!"

"By strapping an electric fan you bought off some random DIY shop to your back?" Temeraire asked incredulously. This fool couldn't possibly think…

"Yes, indeed my good Temeraire! With this, I will be able to generate my own wind!"

She could. By gumption, the pool deluded fool actually thought this was going to work!

"Of course, I am not daft," Indefatigable said. "This is of course merely a prototype for future developments! If this goes well, I shall look for an even better fan until I can one day find something that could help us do 30 knots!"

There were so many things wrong with that, that Temeraire didn't even know where to begin.

"You are utterly indefatigable, aren't you?" The ship of the line sighed. "And dare I ask where you managed to get that sword from?"

"Oh this?" Indefatigable said waving her shiny new saber around. "I borrowed it from the National Museum of the Royal Navy. It was in surprisingly good condition. I think it belonged to one of the blokes that was featured in there… maybe even Lord Nelson himself!"

Temeraire started choking out of pure mortification. That sword was a historical relic, and Indefatigable had just taken it!

"Why… why did you steal it?"

"Isn't it obvious my dear Temeraire? Any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed!" Indefatigable laughed as she turned away and continued down the pier, leaving Temeraire to wonder how her only contemporary in her second lease of leave happened to be such a scoundrel!

* * *

 _Unfortunately for Indefatigable, her plan to use an electric fan to provide wind to her sails to give her speeds that would match, nay exceed those of her successors, did not succeed… indeed, while she had gained some speed, something that did indeed surprise Temeraire, Indefatigable was still slow as molasses as far as practical naval combat was concerned._

 _However her failure did not deter her in the slightest._

 _True to her word Indefatigable was, indeed, indefatigable. Whereas another ship in her position would have lost heart or given up, Indefatigable merely saw that failure as a mere setback that would eventually be resolved in due time._

 _Indefatigable merely decided that, because her idea had worked after all, she had mere been using the wrong brand of electric fan. In the days to come, Indefatigable had gone onto try out a myriad of other brands, such as the Dyson bladeless fan and the Vornado fan, tirelessly charting out her results in hopes of finding a miraculous breakthrough before she finally stopped… and not because she had given up, but because another interesting idea had caught her fancy._

 _Namely the frankly absurd, but rather exciting, idea of riding to battle on a modified jet-ski._

 _The notion of defeat never even crossed Indefatigable's mind._

 _Her optimism, or stupidity as Temeraire had decided it to be, was in fact boundless. No matter how many unsuccessful, and sometimes disastrous, attempts she made to make herself relevant again, Indefatigable continued on her merry way with a smile on her face and determination in her heart._

 _However despite all her advances, Indefatigable's dreams of reliving out her glory days of pillaging the French continued to elude her… not because she was under the watchful eye of her human minders and Temeraire._

 _No, what really got Indefatigable's goat was that there were no real targets of opportunity for her to have a go at! While many, and some would say justifiably, believed her to be a daft fool, Indefatigable did recognise that attacking the French as things currently stood would be a bad idea._

 _Not because the French ship girls would kick her arse in a fight, for she believed with all her heart that (technological disparity be damned) she would win, but because Indefatigable knew that attacking an ally who was busy defending mankind from the Abyssals was poor form for a member of the Royal Navy. The French were surprisingly rather busy doing important things necessary for the safety of the British isles, and she felt it unsporting since none of them would run in fear on seeing her come at them. No chase! No excitement!_

 _Indefatigable wanted to fight an opponent who she would be able to take on in a fair fight, one who she would be able to devote her full attention to in a jolly duel on the high seas like the good old days of yonder. But alas for dear Indefatigable, she had no one to play with. Thus, the only thing actually stopping this legendary frigate from actually starting a fight was that she didn't see anyone she could have one with…_

 _…At least until an old 'friend' showed up, that is._

* * *

In an alfresco café in the heart of beautiful Paris in the middle of the day, a young maiden sat at one of the small tables. What made her such an odd sight for many to see, was that despite this being such a fantastic day the young maiden was clearly depressed, her eyes downcast and her shoulders sagging. Many kind gentlemen stopped to comfort her, but she politely refused their aid.

The newly resurrected Droits de l'Homme looked down at her cup of hot chocolate and gave a loud, sad sigh. The 74 gun ship of the line had not expected this to be her second lease on life.

She had returned, answering the call to battle as was her sworn duty and had believed that as a ship of the line, one of the most powerful ships of her age, she would be an invaluable part of her nation's Navy.

However, things were not as she had expected.

Droits de l'Homme had found to her great dismay that time and progress had marched further than she had expected. Gone were the days of wood and sail, for the seas were now filled with steel hulled vessels that were beyond her wildest imaginations.

It had been a mere two days since her return, and now the poor girl was wondering why fate had played such a cruel joke on her.

"At very least, Monsieur Salaün, Madame Richelieu and the others were kind," Droits de l'Homme said sadly as she gazed into her reflection in a nearby window. "Perhaps they will find a use for me yet in this world."

Droits de l'Homme was thankful that none of the girls of the Marine Nationale had teased her since her return. In fact, many of them welcomed her into their ranks as a brave, albeit old, warrior who had rushed back when she was needed. Even though they were so much more powerful than her, her successors still welcomed her into their ranks like an old friend.

Alas, all the goodwill in the world could not contest the harsh reality that Droits de l'Homme was not needed. While she sat in this café, the ship of the line knew the most senior members of her country's Navy were debating on what to do with her now that she had come before them.

They had been kind enough to give her the day off to see what had become of her beloved Paris, but Droits de l'Homme knew that her fate would soon de decided, and that terrified her to no end.

"What cruel trick of fate that I would have come to this," Droits de l'Homme mused poetically. "What strange dream is this future of France that I have found, that I now have the body of a woman in a world that no longer needs me as a ship. This indeed a wonderful, but sad dream that most mortal mind would not comprehend…"

While the ship of the line became lost in poetry, the sound of hooves upon stone grew louder. Around the ship of the line, be it in the café or streets of Paris, people turned to look at what was approaching. When they did, they turned to flee.

"…and now, my fate is to be decided by men in power who wear my uniform, yet I do not know. Though my sisters may be kind, reality is less so. What cruel twist of fate has befallen such a noble soul such as I! What cruel god…"

"...HAS STRANDED YOU HERE WITH ME!"

Droits de l'Homme's head snapped up to look at the shadow that had fallen over her.

Sitting astride on a majestic white steed that was rearing up over her was an English harlot in full uniform… an English scoundrel that, though wearing a new human form, was one that the ship of the line could never forget!

"YOU!" Droits de l'Homme fell off her chair in fear, scrambling back on her behind as fast as she could away from the nightmarish figure that had come forth!

"Yes, me! Top of the day to you," The accursed pirate from her nightmares laughed hopping off her steed with a coil of rope in hand. "Tis I! HMS Indefatigable, scourge of the French and master of the Seas! Jolly good to see you again!"

It could not be: The English midget from her worst nightmares that had caused her demise had followed her here to this world! Droits de l'Homme desperately tried to scramble to her feet to flee, but a great weight found itself on her back before she could do so. Indefatigable had dropped on her back! There was no escape!

"Parley," She desperately squealed in terror at the nightmarish sight above her, feeling rope binding her hands behind her. "Parley, parley! Have mercy! Please!"

Indefatigable's maniacal grin showed there was none to be had.

"Too late for that Frenchie!" Indefatigable chackled. "You and I are going to have a little fun!"

Droits de l'Homme froze, fearing for her purity as a French maiden.

"W-What do you plan on doing to me?"

"Simple, my good lady. We're going to grab you, grab your rigging, get to the coast and have a rematch! I've always thought that I could have beaten you on my own, and now we shall settle that question, once and for all!"

God have mercy! That was even worse!

"THIS IS A NIGHTMARE! SOMEONE HELP!" Droits de l'Homme shrieked as she, trussed up in rope like a prisoner, was helplessly hoisted up onto Indefatigable's steed. She continued screaming as the horse and rode off, its rider laughing like a vile scoundrel all the while…

"FINALLY! FUN!"

* * *

 **The intrepid adventures of HMS Indefatigable (may) continue!**

* * *

 **Beta Note:** I really should have thrown it up earlier but I kept forgetting. I blame Massive Entertainment and The Division. :p


	6. Chapter 5: Doomed to Repeat

**Disclaimer:** This is a non-profit work of fiction using characters from the Kantai Collection franchise, developed by Kadokawa Games and published by . Please support the official release.

 **Additional note:** Please be advised this work contains allusion to certain contemporary issues, namely war crimes perpetrated by Imperial Japan in World War 2. This work is meant to be for enjoyment, and no offense is meant. Also note that, as a fanfiction, many liberties were taken with Kantai Collection canon for the purposes of this story. That being said, please enjoy.

 **Warning:** Exposition and world building chapter. Huge info-dumps and other such boring stuff involved. Sorry, but this needs to be done. I think I made up for it with a battle scene though.

 **Special thanks:** To Gosu, who stepped up to help with the proofreading. You rock, man.

* * *

 _"_ _Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce."_

Such had the German political philosopher Karl Marx said, and it was these words that Bismarck, proud battleship of the Deutsche Marine and flagship of their Flottemädelskorps, recalled as she scanned the lightening horizon for her pursuers.

"How humiliating to find myself in the same situation as before," she cursed angrily, one bloodied arm nursing her wounded side, as she limped back west towards Brest. A trail of blood blotted her wake, from a large gash across her right thigh where a torpedo bomber had scored a direct hit.

Geysers of seawater erupted behind her, as two Abyssal Ru-class battleships closed in at flank speed. They weren't in range yet, but it was only a matter of time until they caught up, given she'd already been crippled. More concerning were the intermittent attacks from the five Abyssal destroyers, and torpedo bombers from one Wo-Class carrier, that constantly harassed her as she attempted to retreat. It was frustrating to no end: they'd strike at her, then melt back into the darkness just as Bismark attempted to bring her weapons to bear.

It was exactly the same situation as the one which had felled Bismarck in a previous life… except worse.

"Disgraceful! How could I allow this to come to pass again?" Bismarck growled, furious at allowing herself to be chased down the same way twice.

She had been with her long-time friend Prinz Eugen and their battlegroup on a routine patrol to protect efforts to secure the strategic North Sea oil fields, when they had come under attack from a massive force of Abyssals. In the confusion of battle, there had been a miscommunication, and Bismarck had been separated from the rest of her battlegroup.

She'd made the hasty decision to steam north into the Norwegian Sea, where she'd believed she could break contact and then make for safety at the British base at Scapa Flow. But then she'd been ambushed by another Abyssal force, which she'd ascertained to be no less than three battleships, three cruisers, five destroyers and one carrier.

They'd relentlessly chased her west, past Iceland, blocking her from making for the safety of the coasts of Scotland or Ireland. She'd been driven deep into the vast expanses of the North Atlantic, until she'd spotted a hole in their formation and used it to make a break for the coast of France, the Abyssals still in pursuit. And so she found herself here… in a very familiar patch of the ocean that Bismarck had had no wish to revisit ever again.

"Do you wish to humiliate me?" Bismarck swore angrily at her distant foes. "Is it not enough that you are going to kill me, but you wish to embarrass me as well? What kind of devils are you?"

With a force that size, Bismarck was well aware they could have killed her at any time as they pleased. Yet, as if guided by an unseen hand, the Abyssals had deliberately forced her here, the site of the last stand of the Kriegsmarine battleship _Bismarck_ , before crippling her.

Instead of just killing her, they had ensured that Bismarck would sink again in the exact same place, facing the exact same odds…

What a farce.

Already she could see the Ru-Class beginning to appear over the horizon as the splashes drew nearer. The trap was closing around her, and she was too wounded to escape.

"Very well! If it is my fate to sink once more here, I will meet it head on!" Bismarck declared, as she turned to regard her enemy, drawing upon every ounce of courage she could muster. Her turrets rotated to face the enemy, as the wounded battleship defiantly stood her gorund.

If she was to die here, she would do so with her head held high, as befitting the legend of the battleship _Bismarck_. She was determined to give a better accounting of herself this time. If she was to sink here, she would not die alone! Let this battle be one sung of in the halls of Valhalla!

"Hear me, Abyssals! I am the Battleship Bismarck, and I swear to fight to the last shell! For this insult, I will drag you all into the ocean depths with me!" Bismarck howled, raising her hand. "En-garde!"

Then, in the distance, one of the Ru-Class battleships exploded.

 _"_ _There'll be none of that, my dear,"_ an amused voice said over the radio. _"_ _I must say, getting run down the same way twice? I thought better of you, my friend!"_

Bismack lowered her hand, astonishment on her features. She knew that voice.

"…Hood?"

 _"_ _Who else would rush out at two on Tuesday morning to save your sorry arse?"_ The voice over the radio cackled mirthfully. " _Keep heading towards Brest. I have some cruisers that will meet you halfway with tow lines. Leave those Abyssals to us and concentrate on surviving."_

"My thanks, Hood."

 _"_ _Don't thank me. I just don't want to explain to your bed warmer about how I let you sink this close to Gibraltar!"_ Hood laughed good-naturedly as she cut the channel, causing Bismarck to go beet red.

As embarrassed as Bismarck felt, she couldn't help the relief that washed over her. It seemed that she wouldn't be facing her last battle today, and it was all thanks to her friend. Bismarck been so caught up in her hopeless situation that she'd forgotten that Hood, the flagship of the most effective quick reaction force in the Atlantic, would have been sent out to her rescue.

How ironic, the cause of the events that led to her original sinking was now doing her level best at preventing history from repeating itself! With renewed hope in her heart, Bismarck turned back towards Brest.

Before long, she saw four figures come into view, making best speed towards her. The long, gold embroidered red coat the lead vessel wore was unmistakable, even in the dawn's early light.

It was impossible not to know who it was.

"Hood! It is good to see you." Bismarck greeted the battlecruiser with a tired, but grateful smile, as the Pride of the Royal Navy, and flagship of the Royal Navy's QR Task Force stationed in Gibraltar, drew up alongside her.

"And I, you. Fine mess you got yourself in, though. Really, didn't you learn from the first time?" Hood returned a teasing smile. The battlecruiser handed a steel tow cable over to Bismarck and turned to the other ships sailing alongside her. "Renown, Escort, Foresight, you three know what to do."

"Yes, Ma'am!" The two destroyers said with a salute, quickly securing their own ends of the tow cable. Renown, on the other hand, was a lot more reluctant.

"I'm not a tug boat, Hood," Renown complained as she secured the tow cable onto her rigging

"You lost the bet with Repulse," Hood fired back with a mischievous smirk. "You're not saying you'd go back on your word, would you?"

"Well, no… but _you_ try eating all of that _Haggis!_ I really thought I was going to die that time!"

"Ah, ah, ah! None of that sass!" Hood sang. With a huff, Renown joined the two destroyers and began pulling Bismarck with all her might while Hood sailed nearby to provide cover fire. Slowly but surely, the five ships began making best speed for friendly waters.

Bismarck saw flashes of light and tracers as the Abyssals began engaging targets in the distance that slowly drew them away from the wounded battleship. Clearly, Hood had brought her entire task force with her. If she really squinted she could see tracers of gunfire in the air. It was clear to Bismarck that the fighting over there was fierce.

"Will they be alright?" Bismarck asked Hood worriedly.

"I'd put money on Repulse and Oak any day of the week against those Ru-class, Swift's squadron has got that Wo-class and her air group on lockdown… and that's to say nothing of all those destroyers and cruisers I brought along for our little party. Those Abyssal bastards bit off a little more they can chew this time!" Hood laughed.

"You Royal Navy girls don't do anything in half measures."

"Since when have we ever?" Hood laughed jokingly. "We've got this, Bismarck, so just sit tight…"

 _"_ _Destroyer Squadron Two to Flagship! Bloody hell… come in, flagship! Hood, this is Cossack! Hood, this is Cossack, come in, this is urgent!"_ A distressed voice came over the radio.

"Hold for a moment, Bismarck. I need to take this. " A slight crease formed on Hood's face as she turned away from Bismarck. "This is Hood. What's happening over there, Cossack?"

 _"_ _Hood! There's something in the water! It just tagged Lance in her port side, she's listing! I've had her fall back, but it's still trying to get past us!"_ the destroyer shouted frantic. _"_ _Focus damn it! Hit it again! Harder! More depth charges!"_

"A submarine?"

 _"_ _Yes! No! Damn it, I don't know! I think it's something else!"_ Cossack swore as explosions echoed over the radio as the battle raged on the other end. _"_ _Bollocks! Why aren't these bloody depth charges working?! It's a submarine and there's four of us!"_

"Cossack, pull back closer to Cruiser Squadron One. You can-"

 _"_ _Negative! It's moving too fast, at least forty knots! Something's different about this one!"_ Cossack insisted. _"_ _You have to get Bismarck out of there. We've hit this thing with half our depth charges already and it's not stopping!_

"Cossack, calm down. Just aim and-"

 _"_ _Hood you don't understand! We_ **hit** _it! It should be_ **dead** _!"_ Coassack screamed. _"_ _We can't hold it! Hood, you need to-"_

"Cossack, torpedo to your starb-!"

Explosion. Static… Silence.

Hood's good cheer was wiped straight off her face.

"Cossack, Cossack what happened? Cossack, respond. Talk to me," Hood said in an even voice, clearly attempting to be the picture of calm.

 _"_ _D-Diamond to Hood! Hood, come in! Please!"_ A frightened voice came on the radio.

"Diamond, what happened?"

 _"_ _Cossack's down! Damn it. Cossack. Is. Down! Destroyer Squadron Two Actual is down,"_ Diamond all but shouted over the radio. _"_ _That… that thing sunk her! Blew her in half! S-She's d-dead!"_

"Shit," Hood said and closed her eyes.

It was a sentiment echoed by the other ships in their small group as every Royal navy ship girl let out some kind of expletive. For her part, Bismarck felt her heart clench: someone had just died trying to rescue her. She didn't know Cossack very well, but the loss was raw all the same.

However, there was no time to grieve.

 _"_ _Hood, you have to move!"_ Diamond continued urgently, _"_ _It went right past us and it's heading for you! It's coming your way! We're trying to catch up but you need to get ready to intercept it!"_

That got their attention.

 _"_ _SHIT!"_ Hood swore, pivoting around to orient herself in the direction where Bismarck assumed the destroyers were supposed to be guarding their flanks.

In the dark of night, it should have be impossible to see whatever it was, especially so since it was under water. However, something _was_ different. Bismarck, and every other ship girl around her, could actually feel whatever it was coming at them. Somewhere beneath the waves, heading at them at speeds no ship should be capable of, was something powerful and malicious. Though they could not see it, they knew it was coming at them.

Whatever it was, it was unlike anything the ship girls had ever encountered before.

"Renown, protect Bismarck! Destroyers, form a Defensive line with me, now!" Hood ordered. Escort and Foresight threw off their own tow cables and quickly formed a defensive line with their flagship. Renown on the other hand stayed close to Bismarck, clearly attempting to use herself as a shield for the wounded ship, if _it_ got past Hood.

Then Escort's leg exploded.

"NO!" Hood exclaimed, above the anguished cries of the little destroyer, who fell into the water screaming, clutching the bloody stump where her leg used to be. A torpedo had hit Escort dead on, and no one had even seen the shooter. The mortally wounded destroyer didn't scream for long: the mortal wound caused the girl to drop beneath the waves and sink like a stone.

A growing puddle of red on the water was all that remained of one of Bismarck's would-be rescuers.

Bismarck felt her mouth go dry.

"Ship down!" Hood called urgently over the open channel. "We just lost Escort!"

"There it is!" Renown pointed. Under the waves was an unnatural dark shadow, just visible to their enhanced eyes, slowly diving from periscope depth after having just taken down Escort.

It was vulnerable.

"BASTARD! DIE!" Foresight screamed in vengeance, as she fired both her depth charge throwers at where the torpedo had come from… and surprisingly scored a hit, a shadowy shape blown to the surface with a pillar of water. "GOTCHA YOU SON OF A-!"

The shadow shape kept moving, casually changing course this way and that, prowling like a shark, as if to gloat that they hadn't killed it.

"N-No way. That was a direct hit…" Foresight stammered in disbelief, a sentiment shared by the other ship girls. "I hit it. I… I should have sunk it."

Only when the Abyssal was satisfied they knew it was alive did it begin its dive, and it soon disappeared from their senses. But the feeling of being hunted hadn't gone away. In fact, the feeling magnified, as they felt it draw closer, unsatisfied with a single kill. It was circling around them like a shark around a sinking ship, waiting for the opportune moment.

"It's still here." Hood moved to place herself between Foresight and the submarine, hoping that her being bait would protect her young comrade if, when, the Abyssal decided to attack again. "All Royal Navy vessels, this is Hood, we are under attack from an enemy submarine and need assistance now."

 _"_ _Hood, this is Swiftsure, I read you loud and clear. The Wo-class is falling back, so I'm sending Cleo and Dido over to you."_

"Hood, this is Repulse, Oak and I just finished up with the battleships. Heading over! Hang tight, Hood!"

"Hood, Diamond, we're almost there! Two, no, one minute!"

"This has gone pear shaped pretty quickly, eh girls?" Hood jested, clearly trying to keep their spirits up. However the beads of sweat that now ran down her face showed the pressure the battlecruiser was feeling. Facing an opponent that you couldn't strike back at was every warship's, every soldier's worst nightmare.

"No shit! Tell us something we don't know!" Renown reported, head swivelling about in vain to see the predator that stalked them.

"I… I _should_ have killed it," Foresight whimpered, shaking like a leaf in fear. Now that her anger over Escort's death had fled from her, fear had set in. "It sunk Escort and… and I didn't… I'm supposed to hunt subs, and it just s-shrugged my depth charge off. H-How did it do that? W-What are we going to do n-now, Hood?"

"Hold out until the others get here. Just a little while longer," Hood stated firmly, the battlecruiser putting on a brave face for her subordinate. "Keep calm, and carry-"

"Hood, I'm dead in the water. You have to get out of here. You're risking your lives!" Bismarck said, fear and shame having settled in her stomach. Two young women had just died protecting her, and more could follow. Against torpedoes, a warship's main defences were speed and agility. Protecting a crippled ship like her denied them both.

Unlike Hood, Bismarck wasn't afraid to admit just how much danger they were all in.

"We came here to save you. We're not leaving without you, and that's final," Hood refused.

"Hood, I can't dodge torpedoes, not like this!"

"Shut your bloody mouth and sit tight, I have this well in hand."

"You're… you're using yourself as a shield!"

"If that's what I have to do to protect you, then by Jove that's what I'm going to do! _You are not dying here Bismarck!_ "

"Here it comes!" Renown shouted in alarm. The shadow had reappeared, having risen back to firing depth. It was charging at Bismarck at full speed, at almost fifty knots! It didn't fire any torpedoes, though… because it was trying to do something else entirely.

"Fucking thing is going to ram Bismarck!" Renown cried in horror. "Is it insane?!"

"Foresight, get back! Renown, defensive line! Tank it!" Hood ordered. With only seconds to spare, she and Renown quickly repositioned themselves between Bismarck and the Abyssal. Their armour might not be as thick as Bismarck's, but they were in a hell of a lot better shape than she was.

The two battlecruisers faced down the speeding submarine as it barrelled towards them, a sight which Bismarck could only helplessly watch unfold before her eyes.

"BRACE!" Hood ordered, leaning forward.

Then, seconds from impact, the Abyssal leapt out of the water.

The shock on the faces of the ship girls was only complemented by the feral sneer in the monster's face, visible even through the miasma of smoke and shadows that cloaked her form like a fog, as it spun in the air in an arc that took it over Hood's head… and loosed a single torpedo right into the battlecruiser's astonished face.

A flash of light, heat and fire, and it was done.

 _"_ _Repulse to Hood, we saw an explosion! What happened? Talk to me!"_

Two large splashes followed.

The first was the monster hitting the water at the other end of its arc… and the second was the headless body of HMS Hood doing the same, followed by a small shower of gore and red mist.

"HOOD!" Bismarck shrieked, finally jolting the three survivors from their shocked stupor. The ship girls rushed over, snatching the body from the water and keeping it from slipping beneath the waves. The struggle to pull up the body soon stained their hands and clothes as red as the battlecruiser's coat.

But there was nothing they could do.

Hood was gone.

 _"_ _Diamond to Hood, sixty seconds! We're almost there!"_

The shadow had turned away and was making best speed away from them. It had had its fill, and had chosen to spare those that remained. Why wouldn't it? With the other ship girls almost there it had overstayed its welcome. It was time to leave.

But the damage had already been done.

"H-Hood, oh god… not like this…" Renown wept quietly cradling the body, hot tears streaming down her face. Foresight had just frozen in place, her mind having shut down at seeing her friend, then her leader, die within seconds of each other.

 _"_ _Hood, what the hell is going on? The Abyssals are disengaging. They're leaving! Hood, are you reading me? The Abyssals are leaving!"_

The young woman didn't know what to do.

"No, no, no, NO! This can be happening!" Bismarck screamed, her hands stained with her friend's blood once more. This was a nightmare.

For the second time in history, HMS _Hood_ , the Pride of the Royal Navy, was dead…

…and it was again all her fault.

* * *

 **Kantai Collection: The Greatest Generation**

Part 5: Doomed to Repeat

* * *

"Two destroyers and _Hood_. Jesus. Fucking. Christ."

Yvonne shook her head as she processed what she had just been told. This one Abyssal had shown up for all of five minutes. In that time it had caused the single greatest loss of ship girls ever suffered in any one engagement since the war had started.

One destroyer, Cossack, on the way in. Another, Escort, while attacking Bismarck. Then _decapitating_ Hood…

It was a monster, and worse still, it was still out there.

"This… _thing_ did all of that?" Yvonne marvelled. "What the hell was it?"

The man on the screen of her tablet computer looked haggard and tired. He had every right to be: Flottillenadmiral Klaus Hartmann, commanding officer of the German 1st Flottemädelskorps out of Kiel, was probably one of the men on the planet most affected by fallout from the recent events.

He had been Yvonne's contact in the Deutsche Marine regarding the acquisition of the U-Boat for her operation, and when she'd heard about what had transpired, she'd immediately called him to find out more. The news was not good.

"We don't know," Hartmann admitted morosely. "None of the Royal Navy girls managed to get a good look at it… the ones that survived the altercation at least. It spent most of the time submerged, and when it jumped out was coated in some kind of 'fog' or something."

"I see," Yvonne said. Trust the Abyssals to pull out something like this when everyone least expected it. "And… Bismarck?"

The man shook his head. "Bismarck is… well, she's not good, to put it mildly."

The repercussions of the death of Hood was leaving tremors around the globe. Hood had been one of the more heroic personas in the defence effort. Her quick response force had saved more lives than any other flotilla on the planet. Countless merchant ships owed their lives to Hood and her fleet, and it was also due her vigilant watch over the Mediterranean that had allowed the Italians to achieve such a decisive victory.

Hood, more than any other Royal Navy shipgirl, was a symbol of their naval might and resolve. Her dynamic command style, heroic deeds and classical British wit had won her many fans and admirers worldwide. She was, quite plainly, an international hero. Her sinking, more than that of any other Royal Navy ship girl, would undoubtedly impact morale in a big way… but the manner of her death had exacerbated the situation to incredible levels.

"Bismarck hasn't stopped crying since she returned to Kiel from Brest. She thinks Hood and the Royal Navy girls died in her place… and from the rumours going about, so does half of Britain."

"Damn. That bad, huh?"

"They have been _riots_ , Swanson. People are blaming _us_ for Hood's death, and to be honest I can't blame them. It was my own carelessness that got Bismarck into that situation, and Hood was the one who ended up paying for it," Hartmann sighed.

"Hey now, don't start blaming yourself too," Yvonne admonished. "Could have, should haves… doesn't matter. It's war. Shit happens. Besides, who could have predicted the Abyssals had something like that up their sleeves?"

"I know, I know… but it's hard not to. Hood may have been a warship, but damn it, physically she was the same age as my son. She shouldn't have had to die like that," Hartmann said guiltily, clearly haunted by what happened. "The First Sea Lord and every single one of the Royal Navy girls have come out to condemn the rioters in our support, but it's still very touch and go on our end."

"It's only been a day, Hartmann. This'll get better."

It had to. Hood's death had left a huge gaping hole in the European's overall defensive strategy. Her vigilant watch had been disrupted, and anyone attempting to cross the Atlantic was now more vulnerable than ever. They couldn't afford to be bogged down in distractions like a pointless blame game, or else the Abyssal fleet might capitalize on that advantage.

"As for Bismarck, I'm not sure what to do with her. She's completely combat ineffective," Hartmann sighed helplessly. "Sometimes she seems so angry. Other times, she can't stop crying. It's tearing my heart out to see her like this."

"She was really close to Hood, wasn't she?"

"You've read the papers. I don't think there was another person Bismarck respected more." Hartmann admitted gloomily. "With the way she is right now, whatever it was that killed Hood might as well have taken Bismarck out as well. She's no good to anyone like this."

"Christ…"

Hood and Bismarck's friendship was one of the great surprises of the war, and certainly one that the ship girls, public and media had latched onto. The image of the former worthy adversaries now fighting together as first as reluctant allies, then as bosom friends, had solidified the image of this life being a second chance for the returned warriors. Certainly, it was what many of the former Kriegsmarine ships seemed to think.

To see Hood die again on her account must have been a very unpleasant shock to Bismarck's system. Two for the price of one. What a disaster.

"I've forced Bismarck to take time off duty to spend with my son," Hartmann said. "She's in mourning right now, so I think it's good for her to be around him."

"That sounds like a good idea." Yvonne nodded.

"You know, when you first told me your theories, I thought they were a bit farfetched. Now… now I'm not so sure," Hartmann admitted. "Swanson, I'm sorry to tell you this, but there may be a problem with securing U-38 for you now."

"I expected as much," Yvonne nodded.

The Royal Navy and Deutsche Marine were recalling all their submarine assets in preparation for the greatest naval manhunt the world had seen. Somewhere out there in the Atlantic was an Abyssal submarine that was eating surface warships like tortilla chips. Even destroyers, the ships thought to be a submarine's natural predators, were falling prey to this new threat.

As such, the Germans were deploying the entirety of their remaining submarine fleet and ship girls, to support surface and subhunting assets of every Navy operating in the Atlantic, in a massive manhunt to find Hood's killer.

The rallying cry of 'Avenge the Hood' once again sounded.

Yvonne agreed with that decision, even though it would cost her the U-Boat she required for her own operation. Whatever had taken out the Hood was simply too dangerous to be allowed to run free. If it meant she had to expend the effort to look for another submarine for her own mission to give the Europeans the best chance they could to bring that Abyssal down, it was a small price to pay for the greater good.

Yvonne nodded, drumming her fingers against her desk in thought.

The first, truly devastating loss any ship girl fleet had suffered in this war, and it _had_ to be the Hood… and it had to be the place where the Bismarck sank.

Too many coincidences.

Far, far too many coincidences.

The pieces of the puzzle where there, and she could almost taste the answer.

"Is there anything you can tell me about it? Anything at all? I've studied these things, so maybe I can gain some insight into what happened," Yvonne offered. "It doesn't have to be a picture. After action reports, maps… anything you can give me will be fine. I need to know everything I can."

"I'll see what I can do." Hartmann nodded.

"Listen, just send me whatever you have and I'll analyse it," Yvonne continued, "If I find anything that can help you kill this thing, I'll let you know immediately."

"Thank you, Commander. It is an honour to have the USN's foremost expert on Abyssal behaviour looking into this for me, especially when you are on your own assignment."

"Oh please! That's praise I don't deserve, you know that," Yvonne chuckled mirthlessly. Really, she was the 'foremost expert on Abyssal behaviour in the United States Navy' because she was the ONLY expert in the Abyssal Behaviour in the United States Navy!

"Seriously, Swanson, you _are_ one of the best. Thank you."

"If you really insist. But Admiral, this _bastard_ killed a hero. We need to make it pay. If there's anything I can do to help you to send it straight to hell, let me know."

"So say we all. Commander… as to your submarine problem, I am looking into an alternative solution for you," Hartmann informed her. "As part of the agreement our government had with the Japanese for ship girl technology, U-511 was transferred from my command over to the JMSDF shortly after completing her training. She should be available."

"Really?"

"She's under the designation Ro-500. Last I checked she was stationed in Okinawa," Hartmann confirmed. "I can tell you she's as skilled as any of my own submarines. She would make a good addition to your team."

"How good?"

"She aced the Perisher. Insisted she take it before leaving for Japan, just to prove that she's as good as any regular modern submariner. Ended up passing with flying colours. A little quiet and meek, but when the chips are down, I can confidently say she's one of the best in the service."

"Well, _damn_." Not even Tresh had been able to do that yet! Boy was Yvonne's friend going to be jealous as hell. This Ro-500 must be a complete badass that made Navy SEALS look like kindergarteners in comparison! "I'll look into her."

"You should. I'll send you a copy of everything we have about the Abyssal. It's not strictly official, but right now I don't give a damn if it can help us find this thing."

"Right. I'll try and have something back for you by the end of the day then."

"Anything you can give me will be helpful. I have to go, Swanson. My girls need me." Hartmann finished up the video call, leaving Yvonne to her own thoughts.

* * *

Though Hood's death had shaken things up, the war marched ever onward. As much as the events of Brest that day had raised the stakes, her mission had remained the same. At eleven thirty hours, Yvonne, with Yamato in tow, entered the conference room she had booked in preparation for the briefing for her team. It didn't take very long for her and Yamato to finish setting up, and soon the members her team began filtering in.

Tenryuu and the four girls of Destroyer Division Six, the best expeditionary squadron in Yokosuka, were first to arrive. With the whole conference room to themselves, they opted for the front most seats with the best view. The four destroyers were clearly excited at just being here, and they'd all brought their own little notepads and pens with them.

Really it was adorable, especially since Tenryuu really did look like a school teacher when she sat each girl down in their seat.

Following not long after them was Matsuda, who hurried in direct from the Admiral's office after finalising some paperwork. He exchanged quick greetings with Yvonne before sitting down into his own seat, just behind Tenryuu and the destroyers. They hadn't managed to exchange more than a casual acknowledgment though, since they had more pressing matters to attend to.

She did make it a point to schedule a one on one session with him sometime in the future. She hadn't had the chance of apologizing for all the trouble she'd in avertedly dropped in his lap. At very least, for the sake of their ongoing working relationship, that would have to be ironed out.

Finally, seconds before twelve hundred hours, Zuikaku arrived. The carrier seemed pumped and eager to begin as she herself beside Yamato, who on Yvonne's advice sat with the rest of the team as a sign of solidarity. The battleship had indicated she wouldn't be saying very much though, since they'd already gone through the material in private earlier.

Yvonne's team, or at least a large portion of it, since she hadn't secured her submarine yet, had finally been assembled.

"Thank you all for coming," Yvonne began. "I know it's been a tiring day for us, but I want to get this team underway as soon as possible. By the way, if you have any questions, please feel free to raise your hand at any point of time and I will do my best to attend to you."

With a tap on her tablet to bring up the opening slide, which was now synced with the room's projector system, Yvonne began her presentation.

"As you all know, my purpose for coming to Yokosuka is to find out the origins of the Abyssal fleet. What only some of you are aware of is that we plan to do so by locating and capturing an Abyssal commander," Yvonne said, causing Tenryuu and the destroyers to break into murmurs.

Unlike Yamato and Zuikaku, who had already been told, Tenryuu and the destroyers hadn't known the exact details about what they were supposed to do. Well, now they were about to find out!

"Officially, you'll be observing the Abyssals and recording their behavior. If anyone asks, tell them that," Yvonne informed them. "That isn't a complete lie: we'll need to do a lot of observation before we launch the capture mission. But the actual capture part of the mission _must_ remain secret."

Akatsuki raised a hand. "Um, may I ask a question?"

"You may."

"Why the secrecy?" Akatsuki queried. "There are a lot of Kanmusu complaining about you poa… poach… collecting us. Everyone thinks you're an analyst. If you let them know about why you really need us, wouldn't that solve a lot of problems?"

Yvonne could see a lot of nodding heads. Indeed, if yesterday had been any indication, much of the animosity from Yokosuka's ship girl corps had to do with them not understanding of the severity and importance of Yvonne's mission. Telling them would certainly solve that. Unfortunately, that would create its own problems as well.

"Would that I could, however that is actually a very _bad_ idea," Yvonne said, much to the surprise of the assembled Kanmusu. "Researching Abyssals is one thing; the idea of actually capturing one and holding it prisoner... it could potentially unravel the alliance in the Pacific."

There were multiple gasps from around them room as the ship girls processed this shocking news. However Matsuda wasn't among those surprised. It seemed that, unlike the ship girls, the young officer understood _exactly_ where the problem was.

"Despite the war forcing a common enemy on us, many countries are still very distrustful of the Japanese and the United States," Yvonne continued. "Finding out we are planning to capture an Abyssal, or that we are holding an Abyssal captive, might cause them to jump to 'conclusions'. Best case, our politicians have a bad day at the office and have to answer some very uncomfortable questions. Worst case, someone starts a shooting war to seize the captive."

"I don't understand, why would they distrust us for trying to capture an Abyssal?" Inazuma asked. "Aren't we all on the same side, nanodesu?"

Yvonne pitied the poor girl. It was clear that Inazuma still held a very innocent view of the war. Humans and ship girls were good, and the Abyssals were bad. Except it wasn't like that.

"Unfortunately not everyone believes that, Inazuma," Yvonne informed her. "Japan wasn't the most… _popular_ country in East Asia before the war started. The Abyssals attacking hasn't changed that, especially since your country developed ship girl technology without anyone's knowledge."

"But we helped a lot of people, nanodesu!"

"Yes, but some don't see it that way," Yvonne sighed, feeling like an ass for breaking the poor girl's heart. "Without naming any names, these nations lost more than people and territory to the Abyssals: economic collapse, social upheaval… the Abyssals can harm us in more ways than just shelling our ports and dropping bombs on our cities."

Indeed, the biggest problems caused by the Abyssals was that they'd absolutely destroyed the status quo. With the severing of the trade routes, entire economies had ceased to function causing their nations to plunge into anarchy. Food, medicine and other essential goods had shortages everywhere, and international relief agencies were strained beyond their breaking points. Throw in millions of displaced refugees, and it was a wonder they'd held together until now!

That however, didn't change humanity being humanity – there was always someone who would carry a grudge at the worst of times.

"Japan suddenly being at the forefront of military technology is an indicator to them about what the post-war political environment of the world would be, and they might not like what they see," Yvonne explained. "Suddenly having an Abyssal in our possession could be a sign to them that we're trying to develop a new weapon that could solidify our hold on the future status quo. Our countries would be the new world superpowers, and they would have to bow to us. Worst case scenario… they try and take the captive from us by force."

"We'd never do that! We're protectors!" Ikazuchi jumped up from her seat, protesting angrily, only to be pulled back down by Tenryuu.

"Ikazuchi… if America suddenly revealed that they had an Abyssal captive, what would you think?" Tenryuu said. The little destroyer opened her mouth to answer, and promptly snapped it shut when she understood the point Tenryuu was making.

It seemed that the older ship girls at least had gotten the message.

"There is a chance they might, and that is unacceptable," Yvonne clarified. "It's only a worst case scenario, but one that nobody in the know wants to risk."

"Which is why we can't let this cat out of the bag until after we are sure it won't give us problems, correct?" Tenryuu finished for Yvonne, who nodded gratefully.

"Yes. So as to answer your question Akatsuki, we can't reveal the true purpose of this team to reduce the possibility of an intelligence leak: this base may be staffed mostly by ship girls, but there are still support personnel who might talk."

"Damn, that's heavy," Zuikaku muttered.

"Going back to the point, our endgame is to capture an Abyssal commander," Yvonne said, as she returned to her presentation, bringing up a slide containing pictures of all known Abyssal warships. "However, before that, we need to be able to first identify one, and then devise a way to capture it… and that means understanding our enemy."

* * *

Yvonne ran through the basics of the mission with the team. It was pretty elementary and similar to what she had covered with Yamato on her second day in the base.

First step, go through records and interview people to gain an in depth understanding of Abyssals. Second step, form hypotheses of the Abyssals and, if possible, test those hypotheses. Third step, identify an opportunity to capture an Abyssal commander. Forth step, devise a capture plan and then practice it to perfection.

Fifth step, capture the Abyssal.

There was stuff after that, but Yvonne didn't want to overload them with information. Hammering out how they'd actually keep the Abyssal captive would be a topic for another day.

Granted, Yvonne had already done quite a bit of analysis on her own, but she was hoping the extra help could take some of her load off, or better yet, offer her new insights. They were a team after all, and she fully intended for them to help her every step of the way. By the time they were done... maybe they wouldn't be full-fledged intelligence specialists, but she hoped they'd at least be able to see more than what was directly in front of them.

"I intend for each and every one of you to be a part of every step in this process," Yvonne stated clearly for everyone to hear. "We need to be intimately familiar with the Abyssal fleet, their strengths, weaknesses and strategies, to have even a remote chance of succeeding."

There were murmurs of ascent from everyone before her, but just as she was about to continue a hand shot up.

"Commander, a question," Zuikaku said.

"Go ahead, Zuikaku."

"This includes the thing that attacked the Royal Navy yesterday afternoon, am I right?" Zuikaku's question caused a spate of whispering to break out among the audience, "Whatever it was took out three ships, including the most famous battlecruiser in Britain's arsenal. If there is a target we should go for, it should be that, right?"

There was also the added implication that Yvonne was entirely on the wrong side of the planet, but it went unsaid. Yvonne did catch it though, but thankfully she'd already put some thought into her reply having expected this question.

"Whatever attacked Bismarck and Hood is indeed a legitimate target, however I was hoping for something a little 'softer'. Our objective is to capture something, and we can't do that if the target is too dangerous," Yvonne explained.

"But it is still a legitimate target, right?"

"Yes. But as I said, I want to go after something else, and I believe that an opportunity to do so will arise," Yvonne insisted.

"You're rather confident about that. Strange considering that the Abyssals' actions in the Atlantic are completely different from their usual mode of operation," Zuikaku said.

"Actually, upon review of the facts, I came to the opinion that the behaviour of the Abyssals in Brest was entirely in line with one of my initial hypotheses."

Now that caught _everyone_ completely off guard.

"You… weren't surprised by what they did?" Zuikaku gaped, open mouthed in disbelief at the preposterous thing Yvonne had just said.

"Oh, I was surprised about the new Abyssal and the circumstances around Hood's demise. However, after reading through some of the material my contact in Germany sent me, their behavior in the battle matched what I already knew about them. I had planned on leaving this until the final part of the presentation, but since we're on the topic, I might as well skip ahead."

Yvonne looked down to her tablet and quickly cycled through the presentation slides to find the one she wanted. The slide bearing the _title 'Hypothesis on the link between Abyssal behavior to WWII events'_ appeared behind her.

She looked up at her audience, now completely rapt with attention.

"Now this is where it gets _really_ interesting."

* * *

When Yvonne had started looking into the Abyssals, she had been confounded by the absolute glut of useless information that had been collected about them. The first month of her research had been absolutely fruitless, with spending hours poring through documents with little to show for it. Sure, she'd manage to understand the intricacies of individual Abyssal types, but her true goal, an insight into the grand strategy they employed eluded her.

However, that was until she'd accidentally stumbled onto the capture of Singapore by the Abyssals midway into the war.

Not too many people paid attention to Singapore. Compared to the major players like the United States, China, Russia and the European Union, the fall of small city state was a footnote in the grand scheme of things. The only thing anyone really knew was the fact that the surviving Singaporeans had managed to flee to refugee camps in Australia and New Zealand, and what was left of their professional armed forces had been absorbed by the Royal Australian Navy.

Most didn't know the utterly ferocious fight they'd managed to put up during the evacuation, nor the lopsided casualty figures they had managed to inflict on the advancing Abyssals in the face of certain defeat. She had felt it a pity that the fall of Singapore and the valiant last stand of so many of their soldiers had become a mere footnote in the ongoing war.

Then she'd noticed, entirely by chance, the manner in which two of their _Formidable_ -class Frigates had met their ends.

Arguably the most powerful surface warship class fielded by a South East Asian nation, the six _Formidable_ -class frigates had pretty much stonewalled the Abyssal advance from the north east, holding the monsters while the island's residents made a mass evacuation south. Despite their limited armament and small numbers, the Abyssals just couldn't get past the frigates and their corvette and LMV escorts.

Two of the frigates had opted to lead a daring sneak attack north to take out an approaching Abyssal carrier fleet. Radio silence was observed. When they failed to locate the Abyssals, they then sailed back south to rejoin the main fleet. While in open water, they then came under air attack from a land based Abyssal Princess nobody had even anticipated. They were ambushed, and promptly overwhelmed…

…just like HMS _Repulse_ and HMS _Prince of Wales_ had been, in almost completely similar circumstances too.

At first, Yvonne thought she was just seeing things. Two frigates lost to almost exact same circumstances as a battleship and battlecruiser? Most would have thought it a sad coincidence of fate and moved on. However, Yvonne decided to keep looking, and hit pay dirt.

For some inexplicable reason, the Abyssals had an uncanny preference for mimicking the actions of navies from World War 2, to bring about similar situations.

When laying siege to Singapore, they had deliberately re-enacted the sinking of the _Repulse_ and _Prince of Wales_ with suitable stand-ins in the form of the two _Formidables_ , the most powerful and capable surface ships in the area at the time.

Whereas they'd stormed Norfolk with everything they had, the Abyssals at Pearl Harbor had razed that base to the ground using air attack only. Battleship Water Demons were present, but much like the _Fuso_ and the _Nagato_ sisters in the day, the Abyssals had simply kept those ships around in reserve in the Bonin islands.

A Royal Australian Navy destroyer engaged an Abyssal submarine off the coast of Western Australia in a single ship action that resulted in their mutual destruction.

The Abyssal submarine campaign in the Atlantic was so effective at severing shipping lanes, news commentators actually made comparisons to the effectiveness of German U-Boats.

The list went on.

At first, Yvonne had thought they were mimicking the actions of the Axis forces. Then she'd come along to the point in the timeline when the ship girls appeared, and Yvonne saw a transition in behavior from that of Axis forces to those of Allied forces. Abyssals had set up bases and made movements similar to those used by American forces during the Pacific war to greet the Japanese ship girls when they pushed south.

It was shocking, to say the least.

The Abyssal Airfield Princess had set herself up right over Honiara airport - foemerly known as Henderson airfield - and was proving impossible to dislodge.

Similarly, Darwin had been repeatedly raided by Abyssal fighters - although this time, the raids were hardly uncontested.

Then there was their attempted Doolittle Raid that had missed its target, and instead bombed the Akihabara district in Tokyo. She supposed they should have been thankful that the Abyssals hadn't hit anything of real strategic importance, but the point stood.

By the time she was reading about how one of the Abyssals had decided to turn Wake Island into a fortress, Yvonne realized that the Abyssals weren't trying to imitate anyone in particular… just imitate whoever it suited them at the time, all so they could reenact World War 2 history.

There was no rhyme or reason why they were behaving like this, but the fact of the matter was that the Abyssals never passed on the chance to repeat history… sometimes, even to their own detriment.

And to Yvonne, that revealed a weakness she could exploit.

* * *

"…so as you can see, the Abyssals never pass on the chance to mimic a prior World War 2 event," Yvonne finished, a map of American and Japanese movements around Leyte Gulf behind her. "The attempted assassination of Bismarck and the death of Hood does fit in with what I know about the Abyssal fleet."

Indeed, when they'd managed to separate Bismarck from her fleet, the Abyssals had gone through all the trouble to corral her hundreds of miles past the entire length of the Irish coastline, all just so they could try to sink her in that specific patch of ocean off the coast of France. And when they'd failed to do that due to a timely intervention by the Royal Navy, they decided to sink Hood by delivering a torpedo where it would instantly kill her. Hell, if accounts were to be believed, whoever that submarine was had leapt out of the water specifically to do that.

Now all of Europe was out on a single minded manhunt to find the fearsome super ship that that killed the Hood… except this time this fearsome super ship wasn't the Bismarck, but this new challenger. The parallels were there, even if they weren't exact.

"Dear god, how did no one see this before?" Matsuda breathed deeply, as he digested what Yvonne had just revealed. She knew the feeling; it was the exact same one she had when she'd first come to this realization. The answer to that was painfully simple though.

The only reason nobody but her had figured it out until now had been because there had been so much confusion. The Abyssals had only mimicked the World War 2 events when the opportunity to do so came along, and since the Abyssals had been attempting to emulate everyone simultaneously in no particular chronological order, their movements had appeared completely random to the eyes of military planners and intelligence agents.

The randomness of the cases of this occurring, when compounded with the confusion of everything else that was happening at the time, had simply caused the instances of this behaviour to become lost among the sheer amount of other problems that had been happening concurrently.

The loss of two Singaporean frigates in South East Asia paled in to the loss of the USS _Gerald R. Ford_ and her escorts off the coast of Madagascar, and had simply slipped beneath notice in the headlines. HMAS _Sydney_ had been one of many Aegis destroyers that had been lost that week. Although a few had noted the uncanny circumstances of its demise, it was quickly overshadowed by the attack on Sydney Harbor itself on the other side of the country days later… and of course, Pearl had been hit at the same time as Norfolk. Too many dead bodies, not enough working brains.

Simply put, it had been the information overload that had caused this behavioural pattern to slip everyone's notice. It was only until she'd approached the problem by isolating individual incidents with a view to specific historical events that a pattern began to emerge.

Yvonne was confident that with time and patience to properly sort through all the crap that had come in, the connection would have eventually been discovered… but given the mess ONI was in right now, that might have taken years.

Yvonne was just lucky that she noticed the pattern first, so that mankind could take advantage of this weakness as soon as possible.

"I know. I've already presented my findings to my superiors and a number of Admirals in the European navies, and they're currently evaluating it for themselves," Yvonne nodded. "However, Admiral Briggs himself as ordered me to keep this on a need to know basis for now, and I agree."

"Why? This sounds revolutionary. People should know about this," Zuikaku punched a hand into her open palm, just as enthusiastic as everyone else in the room. "Imagine what we could do with this information. We'd kick so much ass."

"Yeah! If everyone knew, our military planners would be able to set up traps and stuff," Tenryuu heartily agreed. "Why the secrecy this time?"

As nice as those sentiments were, the answer was in fact quite simple.

"Well let me put it this way for you: how do you think the Japanese public would react if they ever realized the current Abyssal fleet in the pacific was an exact mirror of the composition used by the United States during the war?" Yvonne said simply.

There was a long pause in the room as the implications set in.

"Yeah, the average Japanese kid won't be happy about finding out Akihabara being bombed was simply a bad, B-grade re-hash of the Doolittle raid," Yvonne grumbled. "More to the point, keep in mind every almost living soul in South East Asia was displaced by the Abyssals accurately mimicking the movements of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Lots of those nations didn't like Japan before the war. How do you think they're going to react after hearing this?"

"That's… not really going to go over well," Matsuda surmised, well aware how many of those issues were still open wounds, even in this modern age.

"Well, that is an understatement if I ever saw one," Tenryuu agreed with a shudder, no longer so enthusiastic over the discovery. "Crap, this is a ticking time bomb, isn't it?"

Millions had already lost their homes and livelihoods to the Abyssals. More than two thirds of these displaced populations were living in refugee camps, and those that weren't were still going through a hard time. To put it plainly, these people were not in _any_ good state of mind.

Add that to the past resentment over World War 2 Imperial Japan among many of these people's histories, and it was likely they'd jump entirely to the wrong conclusions if word ever got out. It might be irrational for them to blame the Japanese. It would certainly be unfair, since nobody had control over what the Abyssals did.

These refugees wouldn't care. They needed someone to blame, and blame they would.

There would be riots on a massive scale, and there was no telling how much damage would be done before order was finally restored. Something similar happening in the refugee camps outside Brisbane or Okinawa would have dire consequences for everyone involved.

"That's why I'm hoping that the real cause is something else. One of the things I'm hoping to find out during the interrogation phase is why these assholes are so dead set on re-enacting World War 2 history," Yvonne stated bluntly. "I don't care if they're doing it for shits and giggles or because they are complete military nerds, as long as we can pin _this_ squarely on them in a way no one can argue with, we can diffuse the problem and make sure this doesn't reopen old wounds unnecessarily."

"That sounds like a good idea," Matsuda agreed.

"Um… I don't quite understand, nanodesu."

All eyes turned to look at Inazuma, who seemed genuinely puzzled by all the grave faces on the older members in the room. Indeed, the destroyer girls, save Hibiki, all seemed genuinely perplexed by what they were seeing.

"Why are people mad at Japan because of the war?" Inazuma asked worriedly. "I mean, we lost didn't we? Why would all these people hate us for losing, nanodesu? We're victims too… right?"

Now it was Yvonne's turn to gape like a fish, just as Tenryuu, Zuikaku and Matsuda gave simultaneous groans. Even Yamato, who had been silent for the entire presentation, on account of having heard all this before from Yvonne and wanting her commander to focus on the others, seemed to deflate at Inzauma's innocence.

Part of Yvonne told her she should have seen this coming. Inazuma was of an innocent age where she wasn't quite ready to know about the nastier parts of her own country's history. Maybe she hadn't covered that part of her country's history yet. A reasonable assumption, since nobody knew that WW2 history was relevant to fighting the Abyssals.

On the other hand, she'd effectively hit one of the hot topic issues they had just been talking about right on the head, and everyone in the room but a blissfully unaware Destroyer Division Six was aware of it. The whitewashing of Japanese war crimes was a huge point of contention for many South East Asian nations in their deals with Japan.

Sweet Jesus, who was going to be the one to have to break this poor girl's heart?

Yvonne cleared her throat.

"Um, would anyone…"

"Nope. No. Not touching that with a ten foot pole." Tenryuu shook her head violently and held her hands out. "Your problem, not mine."

"You said you'd answer her question. I sure as hell am not doing it!" Zuikaku gulped. "You're on your own, Commander."

Yvonne turned to Matsuda, looking at him pleadingly.

"Yeah… I'm thinking, no."

Well, shit.

"Um, Commander? I really don't understand, nanodesu." Inazuma tilted her head curiously.

"Yeah, why is everyone touchy feely about this?" Ikazuchi chimed in support of her little sister, "What's wrong guys? It's just history!"

Ah hell, how was Yvonne supposed to do this?

"I'll take care of it, Commander," Yamato spoke up. "I myself am not aware of the full details, but I think it would be best if they heard it from me, and not from a foreign officer."

"Thanks, Yamato!" Yvonne breathed a sigh of relief. She'd really dodged a torpedo that time! "You're a life saver! I could _kiss_ _you_!"

"Thank you, but I would rather you not do that." Yamato turned away, a blush on her cheeks.

* * *

There hadn't been much left to cover in the briefing, now that she had gotten the meat out of the way. Besides, Yvonne had given her team a lot to think about already, and didn't want to overload them with information. They needed time to digest what they had learned, so she'd dismissed them after making sure they understood the need for secrecy and issuing them some final orders.

Those orders being of course that they were to read every single history book they could get their hands on about the Pacific theatre.

"Tenryuu was entirely right that we could use what we know about history to develop traps for the Abyssals," Yvonne had explained to them. "Besides, if one of the Abyssals decides to to try what they pulled on Bismarck on any one of you, I need you to be able to see it coming from a mile away. As the saying goes, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

From what Matsuda had told her later, Yvonne's 'encouragement' had been all the motivation the ship girls needed to start piling on the history books. All of them but Hibiki had been sunk during the war, and none of them wanted a repeat performance.

As Yamato had joined the destroyer girls in their research, and to make good on her promise to explain things to them, Yvonne returned to her quarters alone. There she found herself taking an interesting phone call.

"Dakota, really there is no need," Yvonne said into the phone as she talked to her friend. "Look, I know that Hood's death has gotten everyone spooked, but isn't this a little much?"

"Look, just take the goddamn arrows," Dakota stated bluntly, her jovial tone gone. She was dead serious, and to anyone who knew about the redhead, that meant something. "It's not like I sent all your gear over. The arrows…"

"Are classified tech, Dakota. You know this," Yvonne insisted. "I sent them back to you for a _reason_."

"Because of that advice you got?" Dakota scoffed.

"Look, I almost got busted the other day when a kid came into my room. If I hadn't left that tablet out as a distraction on a hunch, we'd be in deep shit right now. I'm an intelligence officer, Dakota. An intelligence officer smack dab in the middle of Japan's greatest naval stronghold," Yvonne pointed out. "Guarding secrets is hard. I can't afford to have more than I absolutely need to."

"Yeah, but what about guarding yourself? Most of the time you don't even have a piece on you!"

"That's because I have a bodyguard with eighteen inch rifles who follows me everywhere," Yvonne pointed out. "I'm going to be _fine_. The Abyssals would have to raze this place to the ground to get to me."

"Just like they did to Pearl?"

Yvonne had no answer to that.

"Yeah. I wouldn't put it past them to do that," Dakota said gruffly. "If you're right and we're worrying our little heads off about nothing, you never have to take the things out of the box. But if you're wrong, having them could save your life."

"Who greenlighted you sending them over?"

"Briggs did. He wants the extra insurance," Dakota stated. "Look, I know you're worried about upholding the President's orders, but if it comes down to keeping them and getting wasted, or breaking cover and causing a political shit-storm… _you fucking break cover_."

Yvonne gave a loud defeated sigh. If the CNO himself made the call, there wasn't much Yvonne could do but take the arrows and bear with it.

"Fine, fine. They're be on the next flight over, right?"

"You should have them within the next few days," Dakota affirmed. "We cannot afford to lose you. America can't afford to lose you… not now, not ever. Let the politicians worry about this stuff."

"I understand," Yvonne said sourly. She was going to have to be extra careful now, especially since she was going to have to mind even more sensitive material than she was used to.

"And don't forget if you ever need my help, you call me. I'll come running," Dakota added gruffly. "You keep that encrypted cell on you wherever you are, and I'll be there before you know it. Alright?"

"Come running?" Yvonne scoffed. "Geez, now you're being overprotective. You're on the other side of the Pacific, Dakota. Now the hell can you come running?"

Dakota was silent.

"…you _are_ on the other side of the Pacific, aren't you?"

"Force movement. I can't discuss that with you, even on this channel," Dakota said stiffly. "But my point stands: if shit hits the fan, you call me _immediately_."

Yvonne had no idea how to react to that.

* * *

She'd spent the rest of the day typing up her initial findings and making recommendations about Hood's killer in an encrypted email to Hartmann before sending it off. She wasn't sure if her recommendations would help, but hopefully it might give him some understanding about what had just transpired.

If she was honest, there was one thing still bothering her though, one thing she'd kept from the others during her briefing.

"That submarine… it reminds me of something," Yvonne muttered, paging through her cloud collection of World War 2 history books on her tablet, looking for the right book.

The Abyssals had repeated three instances of history, not two, in that early morning off the coast of Brest. The attempted sinking of Bismarck and the sinking of Hood by a shot from above ones that were well known and publicized, but there was one other.

Whether it was by accident or design, the Abyssals had managed to create a subsurface threat with a fearsome reputation matched only by one other ship in all of history.

" _Death at a Distance: The Loss of the Legendary USS Harder_ , by Michael Sturma," Yvonne read aloud, feeling a pit of dread settle into her stomach. "Shit… of all the submarines they could have emulated, why did it have to be Harder?"

The events hadn't completely matched up of course. Harder had never made any Atlantic patrols during her career, and Harder had never been able to take out a battlecruiser before, but the essentials were all there.

The aggressiveness in its tactics. Its ferocity in battle. Its propensity to turn the tables on destroyers that tried hunting it. Its utter refusal to die when getting hit by depth charges. The Abyssal had been there but for all of five minutes, and in that time this unknown threat had shown up for the first time and then sailed away minutes later with a terrifying reputation few could match.

This, more than the failed trap for Bismarck and the assassination of Hood, bothered Yvonne.

Up until now, the Abyssals had been mimicking troop and naval movements. Setting up their bases where others had previously done so, forming their fleet compositions to mimic historical orders of battle and employing old strategies where appropriate, that had been what Yvonne had expected of them. This had been the first time they'd actively gone out of their way to mimic a specific ship.

Off all ships they could have chosen, it had had to be the most vicious US Navy submarine to stalk the Pacific ocean: Hit 'Em Again, Harder.

Questions whirled about in her mind.

How had the Abyssals managed to create a ship that could do what it did? Reports had clearly stated the Royal Navy destroyers had basically carpet bombed the thing with depth charges. Foresight even claimed to have scored a direct hit. How had it survived?

Why Harder? Why a United States Navy vessel? Could they do it with ships from other navies? Could they employ it against other services, or move it to other theatres? Could they mimic ships that had already come back as ship girls?

So many questions, so few answers to them.

Yvonne was not used to being at a loss, and was determined to rectify the situation as soon as she could. However, the answers eluded her.

Even after she'd finished filing her report, she was still thinking about it. After having dinner and arranging for a trip to Okinawa to evaluate Ro-500, it sat in the back of her mind like a cancer. Even as she lay down in her bed, one question didn't go away.

If they could do it once, they could do it again. Which ship would they try emulating next? That was the million dollar question that now worried her.

"Sure could use England right about now," Yvonne sighed.

Sleep did not come well for Yvonne Swanson that night.

* * *

 _It was a memory that she would never forget._

 _Pearl Harbor was burning._

 _The sheer horror of what was before her like nothing she had ever experienced before. Great plumes of smoke reached into the sky from the fires, a sound accompanied by the desperate screams of the dead and the dying. Indeed, the water itself was aflame from oil that coated it._

 _It truly was a scene out of hell._

 _Never in her career had she ever experienced anything like this._

 _She wasn't the only one who had trouble believing what she was seeing. Around her, thousands of sailors of the United States Navy looked on from the deck at the inferno before them. The bastion of America's military power in the Pacific, Pearl Harbor, was burning._

 _Impossible._

 _An attack as brazen and destructive as this should have been unthinkable, but it had happened. Now people were dying, her comrades, and she was powerless to do anything but look on. Thousands dying, and she had arrived too late to do anything._

 _The cold chill of the knowledge that, but for the whim of fate, she too could be amongst the dead and dying was something she would never forget._

 _No… it was more than that._

 _This was a memory that would come to define her._

* * *

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **Beta Note:** And so it's out. There were some delays and a fairly persistent eye infection didn't help matters any (I am effectively blind in one eye as I type this). Many thanks to Gosu for his help in this, who spotted issues I literally did not see. Certain things have been retconned and changed but on the whole, the reworking has been relatively minor, I think. The most major change is Yvonne shifting from being a full powerpoint warrier to be more sensitive to the vocabulary of her audience, which is only fitting given how she was a pretty good conversationalist in Chapter 4.

In the interests of accuracy, I should note that by rights the RSN wouldn't have sent two _Formidables_ out on a run like that, they've have used the more expendable _Victory_ -class corvettes and the odds of them being jumped would be somewhat lower given the RSN's investment into drones and sensor platforms but well, it's yet another artistic liberty taken to serve the story, haha. Apologies to all _Formidable_ sailors out there. ;D

Also in an attempt to head off the usual questions, if you want American battleships, head for theJMPer 's Belated Battleships, starring New Jersey and Washington, and if you want museum ships, go for Breakaway25 's Bama Quest (aka Museum no more) and Sheo Darren 's Eternity (aka Museum Ships, Museum Ships Everywhere). There's also Skywalker_T-65 's Indestructible spirit and Saratoga stories as well. And if you want zany shens, there's always Things Involving Shipgirls That Are No Longer Allowed, which CV12Hornet is custodian of. And y'know what, that's a great thing. :D

It's been a year plus since this fic was originally written, and it's gone from being the only game in town (srsly, Ambience's author abandoned SB last year when people basically ignored A:AFS for GG lol) to being one of many Kancolle fics. Good fics written by good people, go check them out. That's one of the things I'm happiest about as The Greatest Generation's original beta and now Comrade Archivist - that this story, which I helped with, paved the way for other Kancolle stories to grow.

Happy reading, everyone! For those who've read this before, you know what's coming. Look forward to Chapter 6!


	7. Interlude: Teatime with Kongou

It was just another fine day in Yokosuka Naval base when it happened.

"Mou! The COMMANDER is so busy. She just won't have tea with me," Kongou pouted grumpily. "I want to make friends with her, but she's always in a RUSH to do something."

As was their usual custom, the four Kongou sisters were having afternoon tea in Kongou's room after a rather hectic day of drills and practice. Like the British she so admired, Kongou had ensured that a proper tea set, along with a tiered stand containing scones, biscuits and cakes, were on hand to ensure the experience was authentic as possible. It was for this reason that an invitation to teatime with Kongou was something many Kanmusu looked forward to.

Unfortunately, today Kongou was depressed, and for good reason too.

For days now, Kongou had been attempting to corner the newly arrived Commander Swanson for a spot of tea in hopes of getting to know the American better. Unfortunately for her, Commander Swanson had apologetically turned down every invitation so far, citing her busy timetable and mission. For Kongou, who really wanted to make a new friend, this was really depressing.

"Where on earth does she get so much ENERGY? She should learn to slow down and enjoy herself," Kongou complained, not really realizing she was probably the last person in Yokosuka who should be allowed to make such a statement.

"I agree, onee-sama! She really needs to learn how to slow down," Hiei chimed in excitedly.

"YES! All WORK and no PLAY is horrible!"

"It's can't be helped onee-sama," Haruna comforted her older sister. "She's an ambitious young woman trying to make her career. She's got an important mission, after all."

"I agree. Whatever she is doing seems very important," Kirishima nodded as she adjusted her glasses. "My sources tell me she has been constantly on the move ever since arriving on the base. At very least, we can at least take heart that she's actually busy and not deliberately snubbing you."

Ever since arriving on the base, Yvonne hadn't stopped being busy. Whether it was interviewing girls from the Destroyer squadrons, observing Kanmusu practice sessions or even diving into Yokosuka's rather substantial archives, it seemed like the young woman was a machine who didn't slow down, tire or quit. She was essentially the embodiment of the professional who wouldn't quit until the job was done… at it was clear that there was a lot to do.

Normally, people looking at Yvonne would nod, understand and leave the young officer to her duties until they were done before trying again, but Kongou wasn't an ordinary person.

"But that's NOT GOOD," Kongou sulked. "She's a young MAIDEN in the prime of her life, and she's wasting it away being so stuffy. If she doesn't know how to RELAX, she'll grow old and grumpy!"

Kongou's very British outlook on life dedicated that there was always time for tea. Whether it was during a pleasant, relaxing summer afternoon or during the heat of combat while there were bullets and bombs flying everywhere, the stereotypical British stiff upper lip dictated that no matter how bad a situation ever got, there was always time for tea… and woe betide any poor sap who denied them that small pleasure!

Unfortunately, it didn't appear that the Americans believed that. In fact, it horrified Kongou to see Yvonne 'wasting her life away' instead of stopping to smell the roses, appreciate life's small pleasures and, above all else, enjoy a spot of tea.

"We have to do something," Kongou declared, slamming her fist down on the table and causing all the tea sets to shake. "If we allow the COMMANDER to leave the base with more grey hairs than she arrived with, I will have FAILED as a host!"

"I agree, onee-sama," Hiei chimed in excitedly before pausing. "What should we do?"

"Hm, perhaps we could try to lure her in?" Kirishima, the self-proclaimed brains of the Kongou sisters, pondered the question deeply. "We know a straight up invitation won't work, but I'm sure with the proper incentive she can be tempted into joining us for tea."

"Isn't being in the presence of onee-sama enough of a privilege?" Hiei protested.

"Onee-sama already tried that before. I don't think that's going to work, Hiei." Haruna said.

"I'm thinking something else. Perhaps something relating to her-I've got it!" Kirishima snapped her fingers with a wide grin. "The interviews! She's been doing interviews with the Destroyer divisions to gather information about the Abyssals! We could lure her in on the pretence of an interview and then force her to have tea with us!"

Kongou's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

Now that Kirishima had said it, it was so obvious! Yvonne had been slowly working through the destroyer divisions one group at a time trying to learn as much as she could about the Abyssals. It was assumed when she was finally done with them, she would immediately move on to the light cruisers, then heavy cruisers, and so on. This meant that, eventually, Yvonne would to come to her as part of her mission anyway…

But of course, Kongou couldn't wait. She wanted to have tea with Yvonne now. However, this didn't change the fact that Yvonne still needed to see her… so what had to be done was simple:

"We'll jump the QUEUE!" Kongou sang happily. "Kirishima, you are positively a GENIUS! GOOD JOB!"

"Well, I am the brains of the Kongou sisters," The bespectacled battleship replied proudly, once again adjusting her glasses for emphasis. "We will send out an invitation to Commander Swanson inviting her to interview us on our experiences with the Abyssals, an invitation she will not doubt respond to given we are probably the only group so forthcoming with the invitation she desires. And when she does…"

"We will show her the glory of TEA!" Kongou declared pumping a fist into the air excitedly.

"That's a brilliant plan, as always, onee-sama!" Hiei clapped appreciatively.

"Oh, we're finally going to meet the elusive Commander Swanson," Haruna cupped her cheeks in her hands and blushed. "Oh, I'm so excited!"

"Huddle together girls! It's time to plan for our perfect tea-party!"

And so the four fast battleships sat together, brainstorming what would be needed to lure in Yvonne and show her a good time. Everything, from the font of the lettering to the colour of paper used, had to be absolutely perfect for the American to respond. Then, when she was finally in their clutches, the most exquisite teas from Kongou's collection needed to be paired with the finest of sweet delicacies to ensure the American didn't discover the ruse…

If they failed, Commander Swanson would have slipped through Kongou's fingers once more.

But if they succeeded…

Yvonne Swanson would be educated in importance of TEA.

"Um, Commander… a missive for you has arrived. It's from Haruna, one of our Battleships… she's inviting you to interview her about some important knowledge about the Abyssals."

"Huh, really? Wow, never thought anyone here would _want_ to be interviewed. Let's see here… uh… why is the paper pink?"

* * *

 **Kantai Collection: The Greatest Generation**

Interlude: Teatime with Kongou

* * *

As planned, Yvonne Swanson had shown up at Haruna's door two days later her tablet in hand, all ready to talk to Haruna about the fast battleship's experiences with the Abyssal fleet. The young officer had politely knocked at the door before being allowed in… at which point she was promptly pounced by Kongou and Hiei, who dragged to her assigned seat at the perfectly made table.

Ready or not, Yvonne Swanson, it was time for some afternoon tea.

"HA-HA! The plan worked," Kongou declared heartily with her hands on her hips once it was clear Yvonne could not escape. "We did it everyone! GOOD JOB!"

Seated around the table were all the Kongou sisters, all looking rather pleased with themselves at their successful deception.

Their plan had worked without a hitch. Haruna was easily the most trustworthy and meek of the foursome, had because of this Yvonne Swanson hadn't thought twice about coming alone since the idea of treachery from Haruna hadn't even crossed the ONI officer's mind.

The defenceless and unsuspecting intelligence officer had been easy to overpower, and now that she was in Kongou's clutches, the only way they were ever going to let her leave was after they had spent some quality time with her.

"You tricked me. You actually went and tricked me just to have tea with you," Yvonne murmured disbelievingly from where she sat, her secured tied to her chair with rope and leaving her arms free.

"YES," Kongou said while pouring Yvonne a nice cup of freshly brewed tea from her quaint little teapot. "You were playing HARD TO GET, so we had to get creative to lure you in. So here we are, a PRIVATE tea party, just for you! YOU HAPPY?"

"I knew I should have taken Yamato with me instead of asking her to help Matsuda," Yvonne grumbled. "You _do_ realize that you are committing a crime by holding me here, right?"

The four sisters all looked at their captive guest with smiling faces.

"…and you don't care. Of course you don't," Yvonne sighed, her gaze settling down on the cup of earl grey tea and the plate containing a single raspberry and cranberry swirl scope. "Kidnapping a foreign officer, just to have _tea_. You four are absolutely _insane_ , you know that?"

"That's not a very nice thing to say, Commander Swanson." Haruna frowned disapprovingly.

"Yes! You shouldn't complain like this since onee-sama invited you." Hiei joined in.

"Now, now girls. The COMMANDER is just a little upset that we interrupted her busy schedule," Kongou chided her sisters. "She is a professional, after all. But don't worry, with a little cake and tea, she'll be sure to come around eventually!"

Yvonne stared at Kongou with an exasperated expression.

Clearly the American thought otherwise.

"Anyway, enough about the plan! It's teatime. Let's eat!" Kongou picked up her own cutlery and, with a gracefulness that was completely at odds with her energetic demeanour, began taking measured slices out of her scone like a proper Englishwoman. She was closely followed by her other sisters, who quickly dug into their own scones and slowly sipping their tea.

However, two minutes in, it was clear that Yvonne Swanson wasn't joining them. In fact, the young officer was looking at the scone on her plate in a look of dismay.

"Is there a problem, Commander?" Haruna was the first to notice the officer's reluctance. "You're not eating. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah! You gotta eat!" Hiei chimed in. "We all agreed: you aren't leaving until you have one you know! C'mon ma'am. It's great, just try it!"

"This scone was ordered directly from a shop just from Tokyo," Kirishima added. "They are an award winning shop whose scone are renowned around Japan. Do not worry, Commander. You will love it."

Yvonne looked around the table, regarding the four pairs of expectant eyes on her… watching her every move like a pack of wolves eyeing prey. They weren't taking no for an answer.

"I'm… not a big fan of scones." Yvonne finally admitted.

Four gasps were her response.

"Sorry. I honestly prefer muffins. Scones are kinda… floury in all the wrong ways. Does that make sense?" Yvonne admitted with a nervous smile.

"You don't like scones?" Kongou cupped her cheeks in horror. "OH NOES! I miscalculated!"

"Take a bite! Take a bite, right now!" Hiei quickly cut a piece out of her own scone, speared it with her fork and immediately fed it into Yvonne's mouth. The officer chewed on it for a little bit, then looked at the sisters.

"…okay, this one isn't too floury. But it's a little too sweet for my tastes. Sorry."

The four sisters were horrified. A girl who didn't like sweet things? Impossible!

Young maidens always like cute and sweet things. That was the irrefutable law of the universe: even secretary ship Nagato was subject to it. Yet before them was a girl who didn't like sweet things. How could anyone like that possibly exist? Such a concept was so contrary to their established worldview, it shook every one of them to the core!

"You don't like sweets?" Haruna said, clearly on the verge of tears.

"Uh, I do. Just not in scones. They aren't supposed to be sweet... at least in my opinion, that is," Yvonne blurted out, clearly disturbed at how hard the four sisters were taking things.

"What kind of sweet things?" Kirishima jabbed an accusing finger at Yvonne. "Tell us now! Tell us!"

"Um… I like Mohallabiah. It's a type of Arabic pudding with rose water… you have no idea what I'm talking about do you? Shit, uh… Khao Neow Ma Muang? It's a sticky rice dish from Thailand… you don't know about that either? Peanut Butter cups. It's an American confectionery made using peanut butter. Well shit, uh… Durian? Spiky green fruit from South East Asia… oh crap, you lot aren't one of those people who can't stand the smell of it, are you?"

With each dish Yvonne named, the looks of ashen faced horror on the Kongou sisters grew deeper, while their guest grew more and more panicked as she ran through every single one of her favourite deserts… all of which were too obscure or too exotic for them to recognize.

Finally, Yvonne named something they did recognize.

"Ice cream! Yes, ice cream! Everybody loves ice cream right? It's the only time I actually like things that are really, really sweet, so there!"

"What kind of ice cream? What flavour?" Kirishima shouted furiously, practically in Yvonne's face. The fire in her eyes was beyond comprehension. "Tell us now, Commander Yvonne Swanson! TELL US!"

"Ben and Jerry's! I like Ben and Jerry's! My favorite flavor is Half Baked! Combination of brownies and cookie dough! _I LIKE ICE CREAM!_ " Yvonne practically squealed in response… finally causing the four sisters to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

"Wow, close one," Hiei said.

"I was getting a little worried there myself," Haruna agreed.

"I wasn't worried." Kongou shakily placed both hands back on her hips and threw her head back with a laugh. "There is no such thing as a MAIDEN who doesn't like cute, sweet things in this world. Just because we got the sweets wrong this time is an ERROR on our part. We'll get it right the next time, won't we girls?"

The chorus of affirmatives the fast battleship got for her impromptus speech was slightly more reserved than it normally would have been, but ultimately it allowed them to regain their footing.

"Now then, now that that's over with, let's get back to tea," Kongou declared and settled back down onto her chair. "Terribly SORRY about giving you the wrong sweets, COMMANDER. Don't you worry, we'll get it right the next time."

"Yeah. Next time. Right…" Yvonne replied with a shiver.

"In the meantime, we still have this glorious tea here for you to enjoy," Kongou beamed proudly and raised her still steaming teacup up for emphasis. "This is a SPECIAL blend of Earl Grey tea I ordered directly from Russia. I'm sure you will love it."

"Uh, yeah. Right," Yvonne looked away, biting her lip. "Tea. Yeah. Drink tea."

"Is everything okay, Commander?" Haruna asked again. "You seem rather conflicted."

Yvonne Swanson looked torn for a moment, before squaring her shoulders.

"Okay, I know I'm going to regret saying this… but, the truth is I don't really… drink tea," Yvonne said. "I'm more of a coffee kind of girl. It's what keeps me going, throughout the d-"

Yvonne never got to finish, for she was interrupted by the sound of Kongou's teacup clattering to the floor as the battleship herself fell to the floor in a dead faint.

* * *

The first thing Kongou tasted when she finally came back to consciousness was… _coffee_.

Specifically, the coffee flavoured lips that were currently breathing hot fumes of coffee flavoured air into her own mouth.

"MRPF-GHL!" Kongou half screamed as she bucked Yvonne off her sheer panic.

"Onee-sama," Were the two overjoyed cries from two overjoyed sisters, who quickly hugged Kongou from where she had been lying on the floor. "Onee-sama, you're alive!"

Kongou, bewildered and disoriented, quickly took stock of her surroundings. She was on the floor of her room, with Haruna and Hiei hugging her. Not an arm's length away was Yvonne Swanson, no longer restrained, who was picking herself off the floor and readjusting her uniform. There was also a trobbing pain in her lower ribs…

…wait…

"The COMMANDER did CPR on me?" Kongou gasped in horror.

"You stopped breathing Onee-sama," Hiei sniffled tearfully, albeit with tears of relief instead of tears of sadness. "We were so worried! We thought you were dying!"

"You went into shock when I told you I liked coffee," Yvonne added as she kneeled back down to Kongou's eye level. "I didn't think it was actually possible for a ship girl to get one, but I think you actually suffered a heart attack. Kirishima's gone to get a medic who'll give you a once over, but I think you're out of the woods for now."

"I'm so relieved that you're okay, Onee-sama," Haruna tightened her arms around Kongou. "Don't scare us like that again!"

Kongou's mind raced as she quickly pieced together the details from the clues she had gotten.

From Kongou's last memory, that of Yvonne telling her she didn't like tea and preferred coffee, it seemed that the revelation had been a critical hit and sent her to the ground. While Kirishima had rushed to get a medic, Hiei and Haruna had reacted by freeing Yvonne to do emergency first aid on Kongou by doing CPR…

…CPR…

"You KISSED me?" Kongou paled, the bitter taste of coffee still on her lips.

"It's CPR. Basic first aid. It's not exactly a kiss," Yvonne shrugged. "I was just breathing air into your lungs through your mouth to jump start your repertory system. I'd be more worried about your ribs if I were you. You battleships may be strong, but I think I heard something break there…"

"You KISSED me!" Now Kongou began to tear up, her shoulders shaking as her maiden heart was overcome with grief and despair. "My FIRST KISS… the one I was saving for the Admiral… I just lost it! To coffee! WHY?"

"What." Yvonne said.

"My FIRST KISS… stolen by coffee! NOOOOOOOOO!"

Kongou began bawling like a child at the loss of her cherished dream, sending Hiei and Haruna back into a panic as they attempted to calm their older sibling back down.

"Onee-sama! Onee-sama, don't cry," Haruna begged futilely. "Hiei, Hiei, what do we do?"

"I don't know! I don't know!" Hiei despaired.

As for Yvonne, the American simply threw her hands up, decided that she was not paid enough for this shit, and went back to the tea table to sit down while she waited for the medic to show up.

* * *

This was the scene that the Admiral of Yokosuka base stumbled into when he arrived with the medical officer and Kirishima a mere two minutes later: that of Kongou on the floor crying like a baby about her first kiss, Hiei and Haruna completely panicked and confused… and Yvonne Swanson sitting on a chair with her head in her hands, mumbling something about needing a raise.

"…nope," the Admiral said, pivoting on his foot and marching right out the door…

"Onee-sama, I've got it," Kirishima said from somewhere behind him. "Haruna told me everything, and I think I have a solution for you! The commander may have stolen your first kiss, but you can fix this. Equip that stiff upper lip that comes from your British heritage and CLAIM your TRUE first kiss from the Admiral, right now!"

"YES!" Kongou declared, suddenly completely reinvigorated.

"NOPE!" The Admiral said, breaking into a full sprint.

He didn't get very far.

* * *

 **…And it was just another fine day in Yokosuka Naval Base.**

* * *

 **Custodial Note:** Well, with everything that's been going on, we needed a little something to lighten the mood.

As a stylistic choice, given the narration is mostly from Kongou's perspective I've chosen to generally run with British spelling as opposed to American. We'll return to American spelling with Chapter 6. Muh stylings.

Thanks to Gosu who helped with touching this up again. Happy reading, everyone.


	8. Chapter 6: The Gray Ghost

_Calm._

Darkness.

Peace.

Those were the things that she knew.

Those were the things that she was.

Adrift, formless, in an ocean of nothingness, there was no sense of time, direction or place.

She was satisfied with that.

She had fought well.

She had served well.

She had died well.

The time for conflict and hardship was over.

Peace was her reward.

So she allowed herself to drift and allowed herself to sleep, as all did after a lifetime of battle.

Peace.

So she allowed herself her eternal rest, and would have kept that way, had she not felt someone approaching in this void. Someone powerful. Someone like her.

Someone familiar.

Happiness.

It was an old friend, one she hadn't met in a long time.

Had she arms, she would have embraced her friend.

This friend, more than any other, deserved this peace.

Except something was wrong.

Her friend wasn't at peace.

Hate.

Anger.

Vengeance.

Her friend was angry. So much anger and hate, it slowly roused her from sleep and forced her awake, awake for the first time, in what seemed like forever.

But this was wrong. They had done what they were made fore. Fulfilled their purpose. Done their duty. Conflict and hardship was behind them. They should be at peace.

Why was her friend angry?

Information slowly seeped into her mind, as to why her friend wasn't at peace.

And she saw something.

Injustice.

The war was over, but the punishment had not been dealt. The lessons had not been learned. The promise of the world that they had fought for had not come to pass. She felt anger. How could the criminals not be taken to task for their misdeeds? She had done her duty!

Disgust.

And she saw something else.

A promise unfulfilled.

The promise she had made on her own honor, a promise made to her friend, had gone unfulfilled. She had made a promise to see justice done for the fallen, but had died before fulfilling it. How could this be? The ones left behind should have finished the task in her place! They had all promised!

Indignation.

She thought they had won, that she could rest in peace. Now that the truth had been revealed to her, she would never be able to. Her death had been in vain, her efforts spat on. The people she had believed would finish her task had failed in every conceivable way, and the criminals were unpunished. And worse, were unrepentant.

This state of affairs was unacceptable.

She knew why her friend was angry, because now she was as well.

Hate.

Anger.

Vengeance.

And then she saw something. A chance.

Her friend was offering her an opportunity, something she never would have thought possible.

A chance to go back.

A chance to fight once more.

A chance to rectify that injustice.

A chance to take care of unfinished business.

Purpose.

Determination.

Resolve.

She took her friend's hand, and sailed back towards the light above.

* * *

"We'll be off then, Admiral. I-58, with I-168 and Ro-500, departing for scouting mission!"

"Good luck, girls. Return safely."

They leap off the pier and summon their rigging, and the three submarine girls cut through the water. Their Admiral watches them, and returns their goodbye waves. He keeps a pleasantly reassuring smile on his face, but his cheerful expression fades away as the girls fade out of sight. He sighs, and turns to return to his office, his Secretary Ship walking two steps behind and one step to his left.

"I hate this, Fuso," he says grimly.

"They went willingly, Admiral. And you shouldn't do this if you hate it so."

"I still don't like sending young girls off the fight our battles for us. The least I can do is look them in the eye and personally see them off. I have to do this, Fuso. It's my duty as their Admiral."

"As my Admiral," says Fuso softly, and though her visage is concerned, there is a hint of a pleased smile toying around her lips. _Here is a man I can follow. Here is a man I can call my Admiral_.

"Oh, and Fuso, there's no need to inform Yokosuka that Ro-500 has left Okinawa."

"Is that wise, Admiral? Commander Swanson is making her trip to collect Ro-500 for her mission."

"I know, and I don't care. Never trust anyone from Intelligence, Fuso. Spooks always have an agenda. It doesn't matter if they're Japanese or American or Zeon.

They don't care for our kanmusu the way line officers do. They don't know or understand the cost of a sailor's life. I don't trust her to have Ro's best interests in mind. I'm just glad I could find a legitimate way to keep Ro out of her clutches."

"You don't need to justify yourself to me, Admiral," says Fuso, laying her hand on his wrist. "We trust you. I trust you."

He blinks a few times, quickly, and gives her a soft, grateful smile. "Thank you, Fuso. That means the world to me." He straightens his cap, and his stride becomes more brisk. "Let's get back to work."

* * *

"What do you mean, 'she is not on this base'? Ro-500 is the entire reason why I am here. You can't tell me she is just 'gone'," Yvonne questioned, disbelieving what she had just heard.

Admiral Shimada, the highest authority in the newly established Okinawa Naval Base, simply regarded the Commander with a disinterested look, one that said more about his opinion of the American than anything else.

He hadn't even risen when Yvonne had entered the room, and seemed to be treating his visitor with a disdain normally reserved for uninvited guests. It was clear that he did not care for her presence in the slightest. This would have been something she would not have minded, had it also appeared that he was doing his level best to make her life as difficult as possible.

"Ro-500 is part of the 1st Submarine Squadron. She, along with the rest of her squadron on a mission," Shimada explained.

"What mission?"

"An important mission. Scouting Orel Anchorage in advance of a supply convoy and kanmusu returning to Yokosuka. You don't have need-to-know beyond that," Shimada informed Yvonne dispassionately. "Don't worry. They will be back, eventually. You can see to your business then."

"Eventually? Admiral, I won't be here by the time I get back. I return to Yokosuka in three days!" Yvonne said through gritted teeth. She was furious, and was in fact straining against herself to keep her temper in check.

"Be that as it may, she is not here," Shimada told her with a shrug. "As you Americans are so fond of putting it these days, I simply cannot produce to you what I do not have."

"Sir, with all due respect, we called ahead. You knew we were coming," Yvonne insisted.

"I understand, but this was a last minute assignment that we simply had to do, and our submarines were the perfect candidates for it, since they had no other pressing assignments. I am sorry, Commander, that that is the current state of things."

She so dearly wanted to call him on his bullshit.

Yvonne had checked a day ago: Ro-500 and the rest of the 1st Submarine Squadron had been slated to do training exercises for the rest of the month. With the rest of her team still in the process of reading up a large amount of material in preparation for their operation, Yvonne figured it was the perfect time to head south and acquire her submarine. She'd gone to Yokosuka's Admiral with her thoughts on the matter, and he had agreed with her reasoning. In fact, Nagato had gone to immense trouble to expedite the process for Yvonne. All had seemed to be going well, right until Yvonne had arrived in Okinawa.

It was clear as day that Shimada was full of shit.

No two ways about it: if he were an honest man telling the truth, it would have been a simple matter to call Yokosuka and notify them that Ro-500 had been deployed, so that Yvonne wouldn't have wasted the journey. In fact, Okinawa was actually further from Orel Anchorage than Yokosuka... and the returning kanmusu would be Tatsuta and Kiso, both of them Yokosuka girls. If there had been any need for scouting submarines, Yokosuka Naval Base should have been the base to provide them.

Yvonne knew that Shimada had deliberately done this to spite her and the United States Navy, and badly wanted to call him on it. The problem was that he was a foreign flag officer and, as far as she could tell, the mission Ro-500 had departed on was legitimate, and the timing merely unfortunate. By all appearances, it was an honest mistake.

There was nothing she could do but stand there and take it, and he knew it too.

"Look on the bright side, Commander. I'm sure you can find something to do now that you're already here," Shimada quipped, with an entirely too-effective poker face. "Why don't you have a look around the base? I know this used to be the Marine Corps' Camp Courtney, so perhaps you might like to have a look around and tell me what you think of the changes we've made since taking it over? We're still getting used to having it, so any recommendations about how to improve it from its previous owners could be much appreciated. None of your facilities were ever been designed to house Kanmusu after all."

Yvonne clenched and unclenched her hands at her side, struggling to resist the urge to lash out at the man. This was too much. Not only had he deprived Yvonne of meeting Ro-500, but he was rubbing salt into one of the United States military's biggest embarrassments: the loss of their exclusive right to station military assets in Okinawa.

It was like he was goading her into attacking him, a choice Yvonne knew would be very unwise, since his Secretary Ship was hovering around right behind him. The young woman with long dark hair seemed demure and unthreatening, but Yvonne knew behind that façade, Japanese battleship Fuso was a force to be reckoned with.

Yvonne shouldn't have left Yamato back with the C-2 transport they'd arrived in to offload their belongings. Shimada wouldn't be nearly as abrasive if she'd had her own battleship at her side!

"If that is all, sir, may I be dismissed so I can see to my lodgings? I have brought a lot of sensitive equipment with me and need to make sure it is properly secured while I am here," Yvonne said. She had to leave, now, before he managed to provoke her into doing something she regretted.

"Of course, of course. Go right ahead, Commander. Please, go ahead and get settled in," Shimada said, looking up and giving Yvonne an all too false smile. "By the way, why don't you take the rest of the day off to see Okinawa? The island is one of Japan's famous tourist spots after all. I hear there is a very good sushi bar not too far from our base. You should visit it if you have nothing to do. It will be like a holiday, don't you think?"

Yvonne felt her entire body quiver in anger at his smugness, the implication about the helplessness of the US Navy clear in his tone.

"Welcome to Okinawa, Commander Swanson."

* * *

"SON OF A _BITCH!_ "

Yvonne snarled as she hopped around on one foot from where she'd accidentally stubbed her toe on the side of one of the room's lockers.

"Commander!" Yamato hopped to her feet in alarm. "I'll go get a medic!"

"No, no need, Yamato. It's just pain. It looks worse than it actually is." Yvonne waved a hand to calm her aide down. It did hurt like a bitch though, but Yvonne didn't want to take a chance that Yamato would overreact like she occasionally did. She and Yamato had been in the process of unpacking their belongings into the small 'guest room' that had been allocated to them when it had happened.

"If you say, so, Commander," said Yamato doubtfully.

"Let's just get back to unpacking, alright?"

The room was much less luxurious than the one Yvonne had been allocated to in Yokosuka. It was Spartan, containing only the basic necessities. A bunk bed for two, a pair of steel lockers and a cheap desk and chair had been provided, and nothing else. It was fairly standard accommodations for officers of her pay grade, so she honestly couldn't complain.

"So, Yamato, how were things on your end? Did you get your stuff squared away?" Yvonne asked, as she slowly hung up her spare uniforms in her locker.

"Yes, Commander. My rigging is now stored in the main Kanmusu warehouse, alongside those of the other Kanmusu. The base's personnel was most helpful in getting it stored," Yamato confirmed. It seemed that the battleship had a much easier time than Yvonne did since getting of the damn plane. "Um, Commander? Why did you ask me to take my rigging with us? It's not as if we are expecting to get into a fight, are we?"

"Nope, but it's better to have it and not need it," Yvonne shrugged.

Before leaving Yokosuka Yvonne had made sure to take Yamato's rigging with them, despite the inconvenience from its bulk. Perhaps it was just paranoia after reading into the USS _Harder_ wannabe too much, but the last thing Yvonne wanted was for Yamato to be caught without her defences in the event an emergency happened. Considering that the Abyssals had just sprung a very nasty surprise on the Europeans, Yvonne had every reason to think the extra precaution was worthwhile.

"But... you brought your bow?" Yamato pointed at the non-descript black plastic cases resting inside the back of Yvonne's locker.

Yvonne paused her unpacking.

In the back of her locker was the black metal case containing her bow, this time with labels marking it as a 'top secret' item pasted all over it. She had brought it in, claiming that the box contained highly secretive materials she needed for her intelligence work. As long as she didn't find the need to take it out, nobody would know what was in that case. Normally, since the bow was a weapon, Yvonne would have declared the item out of courtesy to the JSDF before bringing it in. However in the haste in which they'd arranged the trip, there was no chance that an application through the proper channels would have succeeded, hence the need to 'game' the system. It was a minor abuse of her privilege as an officer on a secretive mission to be sure, but one that she felt was necessary to bring it with her.

Of course, Yamato didn't understand. After all, it was a bow that was exclusively used for recreational hunting. Using her officer's privilege to bring in a weapon, to bring a weapon, however outdated and ineffective it might appear, into a base full of girls with naval rifles as their standard weapons, was very odd indeed.

"Was it really necessary to take your bow with us?" Yamato asked curiously. "It's not as if you can do very much with it here. Perhaps we could have left it with Zuikaku. She _is_ quite taken with it."

"Better to have it and not need it," Yvonne mumbled, flitting her eyes over to the blue case that now lay next to her bow; the hunting arrows that Dakota had sent her. She'd made sure to bring them with her, along with her encrypted satellite phones.

"Um... Commander, I don't quite understand." Yamato tilted her head in confusion.

"Hopefully you won't have to," Yvonne replied, closing the locker door and making sure to secure it with her own padlock.

* * *

Although it annoyed her to admit it, Admiral Shimada had been right.

Now that Ro-500 was out of her reach, there was literally nothing for Yvonne to do but walk around the base feeling useless. Worse still, she was walking around a base that used to be a United States military facility, and she kept seeing reminders of it.

Years ago, United States military facilities occupied one-fifth of the Okinawa islands. In the present day, there was only one American-run facility that still remained: Kadena AFB, which acted as the local hub for the USAF's operations in the area. Every other facility that they'd once had was now closed, except for the few that had reverted back to the hands of the JSDF or had been converted into facilities to house refugees from South East Asia.

Much like her first day in Yokosuka, walking around the base made Yvonne feel despondent.

She had tried to help out where she could to take her mind away from those thoughts, but it seemed everywhere she went nobody wearing a JMSDF uniform would allow her to do anything.

She'd gone to the main office to see what she could do, but had been forced to wait for hours before being told that everything had been handled and she would only get in the way. She'd tried asking to help with logistics paperwork and had been brushed off by the quartermaster. He'd thanked her of course, but had explained he'd had everything well in hand: her inexperience with his system would only complicate things. When she'd asked to see the Admiral, she'd been told he was out on exercises with his battleships.

The mess hall staff wouldn't even allow her to enter the kitchen to help with dinner, citing that she would have sullied their kitchen with her 'unhealthy American cooking'.

When _Yamato_ had asked they'd practically rolled out the red carpet and let the battleship in. Okay, maybe they'd let Yamato in because she was a damn good cook, but the point stood.

It was clear to Yvonne what they were doing. Whether it was because he distrusted her because she was an intelligence officer, or because he just wanted to make her feel useless, the man had made sure none of his subordinates would allow her to touch anything. They'd let her go anywhere, do anything within reason, but they wouldn't allow her to take part in the base's operations. They would be 'nice' about it... but the message was clear:

Commander Yvonne Swanson, United States Navy, was not welcome here.

She would have been impressed by the sheer level of passive aggressiveness of it all, but at the moment Yvonne was too annoyed to care. Really she'd had half a mind to pack her stuff and head back to Kadena to hitch a ride back to Yokosuka, but by the time the thought crossed her mind she was too tired to make the effort.

Long after dinner, and a fruitless day of running about the base looking like an idiot, Yvonne threw in the towel and went back to her room to lie on her bunk.

"I have never felt so stupid in my entire life," Yvonne grumbled, face down on her bunk.

"Your treatment here is most unacceptable, Commander! I, Yamato, am going to lodge a complaint," Yamato said firmly from her bunk below her. Yvonne was thankful that her one friend on the base did recognize what was going on, and had done her level best to help.

Unfortunately, despite being the most powerful battleship ever built, the polite and demure Yamato was about as forceful as a housecat. Her attempts to insist Yvonne be included in things never really got anywhere, since most people were able to just talk around her. In a way, Yamato was just too nice for her own good.

Besides, there was another problem.

"I appreciate the offer, but I don't think that's going to work," Yvonne grumbled.

"Why not?"

"Plausible deniability. Everyone we've talked to has been carrying out legitimate orders. We were the interlopers. They had every right to turn us down, even if we could have helped," Yvonne surmised grudgingly.

She'd bet that damned Admiral was behind this. If it came down to a complaint, it was likely he'd back men up. She'd lose. Worse, if she complained against him directly, the resulting shit-storm would give everyone problems.

"Oh, I see," Yamato sighed after Yvonne's quick explanation.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up over it. It's not like you were the one who caused all this," Yvonne turned to look at the book Yamato was cradling in her hands.

Time for a change of topic before Yamato got bogged down in her lack of self-esteem. "So, doing some reading? What about?"

"Oh? This book," Yamato held it up to show Yvonne the cover, " _War at Sea: A Naval Atlas Japanese Edition_ , written by Marcus Faulkner and localized by Uezu Makoto. It's a translated Japanese edition that I managed to find before I left Yokosuka."

"Really? A Japanese edition?" Yvonne turned around to be able to sit on her bunk.

"Well, it was actually translated by some naval enthusiasts before being released in Japan shortly before the Abyssal Fleet first appeared. As per your orders, I, Yamato, have been reading to further my understanding of the war," Yvonne informed Yvonne proudly. "This book is actually the second foreign book that I've read."

"You're reading foreign books now?"

That was surprising. When Yvonne had given the order out for her team to read history books, most of the ship girls had simply arranged for someone to go over to the small library in the nearby town and checked out all the Japanese history schoolbooks they could get their hands on. It was only Matsuda who had actually tried looking for other material, but his acquisitions had only been English language books he'd gotten off Kindle. Not something the other girls could read.

She didn't quite blame them though: her orders had been quite unusual, and on short notice it would be hard to find other sources. To hear that Yamato had actually gone the extra mile was a good sign.

"Well, to be honest, I'd already read all the standard material in the library. I did have a lot of free time on my hands," Yamato admitted sheepishly. "I, Yamato, thought I'd try seeing if there were other things I could find, like foreign books. I would have tried reading the material Admiral Matsuda has, but I can't really read English."

"Ah, I see. Well the good thing is that you are making the effort," Yvonne commended.

"Most of the Japanese books focused on the Pacific, and never really went into the kind of detail about the other theatres like foreign books do," Yamato said. "I, Yamato, had no idea that there were such hard fought campaigns and battles in other theaters. It really is fascinating."

With the amount of naval power fielded by the United States and the Japanese in the Pacific, not to mention the explosive ship to ship engagements that so characterized the combat there, it was easy for these battles to overshadow those in other areas of the world. This was especially true for a person living in the Pacific Rim, like Yamato, as many of those battles had been half a world away as far as she was concerned.

Everybody liked talking about battleships and carriers having it out in large battles in the Pacific, rather than the slow, tedious game of cat and mouse fought between the escort forces of the Allied Powers and submarines of the Axis Powers in the Atlantic.

The trials surrounding the Artic Convoys were sometimes physically painful to read about, with the frigid weather and rough seas more of an enemy to the ships that braved it than the enemy itself: the battles that were fought were often desperate, bloody, one-sided affairs that lacked any of the glamor and tactics of the Pacific.

The Battle of the Mediterranean, including individual engagements like the Battle of Cape Matapan, had been a vicious conflict, but lacked the same scale and grandeur that the Japanese were used to read about in the island hopping campaigns.

And all of those happened thousands of miles away from Japan.

Yvonne of course was long familiar to all these, having studied them all extensively, but this was all very new to Yamato, who likely had never even thought about what was happening in those foreign waters, until she'd met Yvonne.

"If it helps, we're probably only going to have to worry about the Abyssals attempting to repeat any of those events on us if we actually go there ourselves," Yvonne pondered. "It's probably a good idea to just limit your reading to the events surrounding the Pacific for now."

"That's also another reason why I decided to read foreign books," Yamato said with a soft smile and a light blush. "I, Yamato, wanted to read the books you did, Commander. If I read what you read, I will understand how you think... and the way you think is unlike anyone I've ever met before. I thought if I could understand you, I could help you better."

"Um, thank you?" Yvonne really didn't know what to say about that.

Yamato quickly placed a bookmark at the page she was at before setting the book aside. She walked over to her locker, and within moments produced another large tome for Yvonne to see. Like the previous one, it was also a foreign book that had been translated into Japanese. It was thick, the topic it was concerned with being of such import it required many, many pages to cover. On the front was its title and a picture of the ship that the book was about.

Oh. _Well_ now.

"There weren't many books in the library, but this one was highly recommended. I found it very interesting," Yamato said with a smile.

"Yes. I am sure it is." Yvonne shook her head with a smile of her own.

In hindsight, Yvonne probably should have seen this coming from a mile away.

Obviously if some Japanese military junkies were going around translating foreign books about World War 2 into Japanese, they'd probably translate the one about one dealing with the most famous ship on the opposite side of the war.

"Yeah, Stafford wrote a pretty damn good book," Yvonne said approvingly.

* * *

 _She skimmed along the surface of the ocean with the echoes, searching for the enemy._

 _Time had passed since she'd come back... at least, she thought it had._

 _It was hard to understand what she was doing sometimes._

 _She was so used to the cold and peace, that her return almost overwhelmed her at first. Sensations she had never thought she would feel again had initially thrown her for a loop._

 _Heat._

 _Colour._

 _Life._

 _These things had driven her to her knees. For the first few days of her return, it was all she could do to anchor herself and not be swept away by the tide of sensations. However, she needed these feelings to stay in this world, and forced herself to acclimatize herself to them._

 _Those where the things that gave her a sense of self, a sense of purpose._

 _At least... sometimes they did._

 _She felt as if she was moving in a fever dream. The transition from 'nothing' to 'something' wasn't an easy one, and even after being in this world for a long time her senses still felt muddled and her thoughts jumbled._

 _She had eyes, but the light was blinding._

 _She had ears, but the sound was deafening._

 _She had skin, but the mere ocean breeze felt scalding hot on her frigid pale flesh._

 _It was hard to understand what she was doing, and at times she felt like it was all going to sweep her away like an ocean current, all over again._

 _So she focused on what she knew._

 _Hate._

 _Anger._

 _Vengeance._

 _The reason she came back. The reason she now fought once more. To burn the injustice from this world and visit punishment on those who deserved it and those who had failed to uphold it..._

 _And especially those that got in her way._

 _There were many enemies, and their number seemed to grow greater and greater by the day._

 _Sometimes it overwhelmed her... the hate._

 _The rage._

 _And thus she was able to weather the storm of sensations and keep her heading, moving ever forward towards her goal._

 _Sometimes she wondered if it had affected her judgement... if she was losing her sense of self. It was hard to see through eyes she had never used before as it was without the red tint of anger clouding her vision. A part of her knew that the days where she had simply spent hours screaming and venting her rage in solitude were not healthy._

 _But in the end it didn't matter._

 _It was those thoughts, dripping of hate and malice, that kept her anchored to this world._

 _It was these thoughts that drove her._

 _It was these drives that allowed her to keep fighting._

 _It was the fight that allowed her to exist._

 _It had taken her a long time to get used to this body, at least used enough to fight herself. Up until now she, like the rest of her friends, had left the battle to the echoes, directing them with her unseen hand, while she mastered her body and readied herself for the conflict to come._

 _She was no expert at strategy, and her muddled thoughts made it hard to command, but somehow she had managed to command the echoes with small bouts of clarity, of memories of battles that had been fought long ago, that occasionally came to her._

 _How she had dearly wanted to join them._

 _Now, enough time had passed, she was ready to exact vengeance with her own hand, just as she should have done all those years ago._

 _Already one of her friends had taken to the field, once again driving fear into the hearts of her prey._

 _Now it was her turn to make her presence known._

 _Soon the criminals would remember her name once more._

 _Together with dozens of echoes under her command, she made her way north towards a small island chain._

 _It was time to remind them of what they did to to those islands before._

* * *

Seeing as how she wasn't welcome at Okinawa Naval Base, Yvonne had thrown in the towel and made arrangements to head back to Yokosuka post haste the following morning. The Admiral, who had mysteriously become available to see her the moment she'd declared she was leaving (and not a moment before) had happily made arrangements for her to leave himself.

"The only flight we have available to Atsugi will be later this evening at twenty one hundred hours," Shimada had said to her, "So you have the rest of the day to yourself. It shouldn't take you very long to get yourself packed and ready to leave, so why don't you have a look around our island in the meantime? Even with all the refugees milling about, Okinawa is much better off now that's its back under the full administration of its rightful owners. You should have a look around and see what we Japanese have done to improve it."

What an asshole.

Still, he was right: It hadn't taken long for her to arrange for the proper transfer of Yamato's equipment and her effects for the flight, and soon Yvonne once again had been at a loss as to how to fill her time. With nothing else to do, she decided to take Shimada up on his suggestion to see the island and applied for leave.

Except instead of heading to the city of Naha, like he'd expected her to, she had instead chosen to see one of the many refugee camps situated on the island chain. Well it was her goddamn leave. She could do what she wanted with it!

Stepping out of the jeep that she'd borrowed to make the trip, now resting in the small parking lot just past the main gate house, Yvonne turned her head slowly to see the sea of tents and dilapidated buildings around her.

"Christ. It's worse than I had thought," Yvonne muttered sadly, closing the door and beginning the trek around the refugee camp.

"This is horrible!" Yamato said as she fell into step with Yvonne. "I-I had no idea there were so many people. How did this happen?"

"The Abyssals," Yvonne snarled.

Naval Facility White Beach hadn't been one of the United States Navy's most prominent bases, especially with the Japanese mainland, Taiwan and the Philippines so close by, but it did bear the dubious distinction of being one of their first facilities to have been raided by an Abyssal counterattack.

Although the death toll had been relatively minor, vital infrastructure had been destroyed, and the base had been evacuated until resources could be shipped in to rebuilt it. But before that had happened most of Seventh Fleet had been sunk, and rebuilding the White Beach Naval Facility had become much less urgent for the US.

When the grounds had reverted to them, the JMSDF decided that it would be easier to expand Camp Courtney and add a port facility to it than to rebuilt White Beach as a naval base. This meant that the base had been available and 'perfect' for moving in over one hundred thousand displaced refugees who were now crammed shoulder to shoulder in this fenced of area of the island that was far too small to actually hold them all.

If she were honest, Okinawa hadn't been the best place to put refugees. It relied far too much on supplies brought by ship to provide for its population, and by all right should have been evacuated. It was only because of the US Navy's stubborn determination to hold the line so many months ago that had allowed it to remain in human hands, and even then, with the razing of White Beach, it had been a very close thing.

However, Okinawa had survived, and because it did, that made it a port of call for refugees seeking shelter from the Abyssals, especially with the protective umbrellas of its ship girl task force. It did not matter that the island's inhabitants were hard pressed to find the space for them, nor did it matter that the Japanese government apparently didn't want them there... for these people who had lost everything, it was sanctuary from monsters that had taken their home.

Yvonne and Yamato moved through the area, looking at all the gaunt faces and thin bodies as they made their way to the head office. Normally, two women moving through a throng of displaced refugees without an escort would be a bad idea, but Yvonne could tell the refugees were well aware Yamato wasn't any ordinary woman.

As they walked through, she could see their faces slacken with awe as the demure young woman with a red parasol walked among them.

 _"Yamato..."_ came the whisper that slowly went through the crowd.

 _"It's the battleship Yamato."_

 _"It's the most powerful ship girl."_

 _"Yamato's here."_

 _"Mr. Sakai was right... one really came!"_

Whispers went through the refugees, first of confusion, then of awe and hope. Yvonne may not have spoken Vietnamese, but the meaning behind their awe was clear.

"C-Commander, they're staring at me," Yamato whispered into Yvonne's ear, fidgeting at with her parasol at the amount of attention she was getting.

"Yeah, I know," Yvonne nodded. Yvonne was aware that coming here was a bit of a gamble, especially since one of the reasons she'd even decided to come was because she wanted to gauge the reaction of the refugees, but it seemed to be one that was paying off.

* * *

The refugee camp manager was a stout Colonel in his late thirties by the name of Sakai. He had dutifully taken up the role assigned to him with all the dedication and professionalism one would expect of a loyal soldier. He welcomed them into his office with a warm smile, seating them around a hurriedly set up wooden table and guest chairs that had clearly not been used for a while.

"Thank you for coming, Commander, Yamato. It is an honour to receive both of you," Sakai said as he poured them tea in the traditional Japanese manner. "I am sorry this is all we can offer right now. You visit was unexpected, and we don't exactly have much to offer since resources are tight."

"It's fine. It is us who are imposing on you with this unplanned visit," Yvonne replied with a smile.

"I can't tell you how good it is that you two came to our camp to see the refugees," Sakai said with a relieved sigh. "I keep asking Admiral Shimada to arrange for one of his Kanmusu to come down here to visit, but he's never once given my requests the time of the day. You being here practically changed all that in a heartbeat!"

"Really?" Yamato said, shocked at what she was hearing.

"Just seeing you has done wonders for the refugees' morale, already!" Sakai said, "Yamato's presence a sign to the refugees that the Japanese people have not forgotten about them."

"I... Is Yamato really that important?" Yamato blushed and wrung her hands nervously.

"Yeah. Yeah you are," Yvonne affirmed with a small smile.

Yamato may not have realized this herself, but she was more than just a ship girl. She was a symbol, a representation of Japan's military might. More than that, as the most powerful battleship in the world, she was the living embodiment of their commitment to push back the Abyssals and reclaim the lost territories... including the ones that rightfully belonged to the people living in tents outside.

To them, she was _hope_.

"Uh, forgive my forwardness, Lady Yamato, but would you mind if, after this, you go out and talk to some of them, even if only for a while? I could have my men guard you if you really want," Sakai implored her. "It would mean a lot to them if you did so."

"I... I, Yamato, would love to!" the battleship said, with a courteous bow. Sakai quickly called for some of his men to come and escort the battleship outside the front office, where she could meet and talk to some of the refugees.

With Yamato's departure, it left the two officers alone in the room.

"The refugee situation is much worse than I thought," Yvonne said, once Yamato was out of earshot.

"Commander, if you don't mind me saying, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. It's hard enough that I'm having trouble getting enough food to feed these people, but morale is nearly impossible to manage. Frankly, I'm desperate," Sakai sighed.

"I've seen pictures of the camps in Brisbane and Perth, and have actually been in the one in Nevada. This is the worst camp out of all the ones I know of. Whathappened?"

"Bureaucrats in Tokyo, _that's_ what happened," Sakai snarled.

The refugee camps in other parts of the world weren't as bad as what she'd seen outside, largely in part to how other nations had taken to the refugee issue.

Australia, after some initial missteps in dealing with two million refugees that had wound up on its doorstep, had revived an old World War 2 practice where these displaced populations volunteered as a productive workforce to shore up the labor shortfall in the now robust war industry they had shifted to.

Given that the only way many of these refugees were going to go home again was if they helped the Australians win, there had been no shortage of volunteers for the dozens of new jobs that needed doing. They helped in the farms and fields. They helped in the mines and scrapyards. They helped in the shipyards and factories.

Instead of being a burden that needed to be supported, they became an asset that could be used.

Thanks to these policies, the Royal Australian Navy currently possessed the third largest conventional navy in the world, even if most of it was brown water patrol ships. It was something that drastically helped their coastal defences given their relatively small ship girl numbers, and with all the light frigates

they were building, projections showed that the Australians had the potential to be a real world superpower coming out of the Abyssal war. It was such a success, that other countries like China, Russia, and especially the United States, had quickly copied the practice.

These refugees weren't necessarily citizens by any means, but it kept them productive, active and gave them hope. The refugees benefited, the community benefited, and the nation benefited. Everybody won.

However, in contrast to the social contract that these countries had formed with their refugees, it seemed that the Japanese had simply allowed these people to languish here without anything to do. Sequestered in their own little corner of the island, of which this camp alone had one hundred thousand people, all these displaced populations could do was bide their time and wait for news of a victory that never seemed to come.

"I've tried and tried to get headquarters to do something, but nobody's listening," Sakai said, as he cradled his cup of tea. "The Japanese government doesn't really know what to do with these people. Unlike Australia, we don't have massive untapped natural resources, farms or factories that we could send them to work on. Worse, some idiot thinks the problem will go away if we keep all these people locked up. It's insane."

"That's terrible." Yvonne winced sympathetically.

"It gets worse: with the 'rationing' due to the war, I get less and less supplies every time there's a review on our budget. The people making the decisions over in the mainland think feeding the refugees here isn't worth the price hike in groceries," Sakai said dejectedly. "The only reason this camp is still operating is because the mayor of Naha and about half the local population there are slipping me supplies under the table."

"Dear god." Yvonne shook her head.

"I'm at my wits end at what to do, when what they can give me is insufficient to meet the camp's needs. Bless their hearts for helping, but they need to eat too. I can't ask more than they've already given."

"What about aid from the NGOs?"

"Already tried. They're stretched too thin dealing with all the refugee camps in central Asia. Those camps house millions. Compared to them, we're a drop in the bucket," Sakai sighed. "Too small that we don't get the attention we need, too large that we can still have a disaster on our hands."

It was exactly like what was happening to her: just as Yvonne wasn't welcome by Shimada, so too were the refugees by the Japanese government. The 'joke' of course was that the Okinawans themselves were perfectly happy to help the refugees. It was someone in Tokyo who thought otherwise, and was slowly applying pressure in hopes they would go away to somewhere else.

She could tell Sakai, and from the looks of it much of his staff, were decent men trying to do the best with what they had. In fact she was quite familiar with what he was going through: Yvonne was no stranger to getting screwed over by someone on high for political reasons, even if she could understand them.

Worse still, as they'd talked Yvonne was getting the impression that another one of Sakai's problems was Shimada. The Admiral, having control over what was arriving from the mainland by virtue of being the highest ranking JSDF officer on the island, was diverting the limited resources. Much of the supplies that could have been used in the refugee camp had been diverted to the Okinawa Naval Base.

In fact, Sakai seemed to be hinting to her about it without saying it outright. He must have been desperate if he was coming out to a foreign officer like this. Most JSDF officers would never dare to do such a thing at the risk of losing 'face' for their country, even if they were Ground Self Defense Force being squeezed by the Maritime Self Defense Force. Sakai wasn't one of those people.

"You seem to be a good woman, Commander Swanson, so I'm not afraid to ask this of you: is there any way, any way at all, that you could get your superiors to help me?" Sakai appealed, "I've tried everything on my end to no avail. If you could ask your superiors to send relief aid..."

"I understand," Yvonne said. "I'll see what I can do."

* * *

"Do not worry. I, Yamato, give you my word that I will do my upmost in reclaiming your home for you." Yamato said to the elderly woman that was shaking her hands.

"Thank you. Thank you!" the woman replied in stilted Japanese, tears streaming from her eyes.

Seated on a chair in front of the main office facing a small crowd while being watched over by two JGSDF guards, Yamato received the many refugees who came to her. She didn't speak Vietnamese, and so the language barrier was a problem, however Yamato did her best to communicate with them regardless. Somehow, across the barrier of language, she understood them.

Some came to her imploring her to fight, asking her to sail out and avenge their friends and families who had died at the hands of the Abyssals. To those, she gave assurances, freely and unequivocally, that she would do so on their behalf. The Abyssals had much to answer for indeed.

"I promise you, I will avenge your son."

Some were angry, angry at being forced to live in this horrible place by the Japanese, powerless to do anything to change their circumstances. She allowed them to rail at her, allowing them to vent their anger, until all that remained were tears. As much as she hated their harsh words, she knew it wasn't their fault to be like this.

"I am sorry that you have to endure this."

Some, like the woman before her, simply came to thank her for not forgetting them. It had seemed that the country they had fled to, her country, had cast them aside. Her presence had assured them that was not the case. These people were the hardest to receive, for their humility at something so simple caused Yamato's heart to break over and over again.

"I have not forgotten about you."

That was the one thing she felt guilty about, however. She had not come here of her own volition. Commander Swanson had been the one to remember them, not her. Yamato had not even realized they existed.

She felt ashamed and unworthy, but forced herself to comfort them all the same.

Yamato's heart went out to these people. All her life she had lived in luxury in her gilded cage, only braving war in a small smattering of occasions when she was truly needed. In contrast, these people had suffered so much, and it was humbling to the battleship that they had survived trials she couldn't even imagine.

Yamato had always believed it was her duty to fight for her country as their sword and shield. Now she saw that the responsibility she now bore was even greater than that.

"Thank you, Commander, for showing me this," Yamato said to herself... just as she heard the roaring of plane engines. "What?"

Everyone in the area turned to look up at the sky at the unfamiliar, alarming sound.

High above them, visible against the clear cloudless sky, dozens of small black dots blotted out the air. Some were so high up that they left contrails in their wake. It was mystifying at first.

Dozens of dark objects, flying in formation, heading north...

For a brief moment, Yamato and the rest of the refugees didn't know what they were looking at. Then their eyes focused on the shapes at a lower altitude, and managed to make out what they were: familiar flying abominations that had caused mankind so much grief in the years before.

Yamato paled.

This was an Abyssal force... and it was already here.

"AIR RAID!"

* * *

Admiral Shimada had been in the middle of his morning tea and reviewing reports when the first bombs fell.

The surprise attack had come without warning: the first hit instantly smashed into their radar facility, setting it all ablaze and killing anyone in it. He'd hadn't had time to even jump to his feet before the second set of bombs fell, this time crashing into their communications facilities. The third set found their way into the fuel depot, causing a massive, towering explosion that blew the windows of his office in, knocked him to the floor and gave Shimada a concussion.

When the dazed officer finally came to his senses, it was through Fuso shaking him by his shoulders, her panicked face inches from his own, in the shattered wreck of his office.

"Admiral! Admiral! Please, talk to me!" the young woman pleaded, her face pale.

"Fuso... Fuso what happened? What's going on?"

Shimada shook his head repeatedly, trying to force the stars out of his eyes. Blood poured down his face from a cut across his forehead, but the wound was thankfully superficial, if distracting.

No, he had bigger worries right now.

"We've been attacked! The base is under attack! They-they got past our radar and bombed us!"

Fuso's news was dire. Hundreds of dive bombers from several Abyssal carriers had delivered their payloads, knocking out many of the essential facilities in his base. While they hadn't hit everything of value, for the main Kanmusu dormitory and the docks had narrowly survived the bombing, much of the base was already in flames.

How the Abyssals had gotten past their early warning systems and defences, Shimada did not know. The point was moot anyhow, since the damage was already done.

The Abyssal bombers that had done so much damage had turned around and left... whether it was because they were done wreaking havoc, or because they were going to re-arm, he did not know.

That did not change the fact he had to act.

"Admiral, what do we do?" Fuso asked him, frightened out of her mind.

The normally calm battleship had been shaken, as with everyone else under his command.

The base was under attack. His men were in a panic, and the enemy was still out there. It was clear that the battle had just began. Worse, with his radar facilities offline, he was fighting blind. He could at least call for help: although the Abyssals had destroyed the base's primary communications facilities, there were still backup systems in place, precisely for this sort of contingency. What wasn't in place were additional forces that could be plucked out of a hat to come to his aid – everyone who could conceivably aid him was hours and hundreds of kilometers away.

The situation was dire. However, as a sailor, there was only one option open to him, which he readily took.

"Fuso, gather the fleet," Shimada said, rising to his feet. "Ready for counterattack."

* * *

"I can't get Okinawa Naval Base on the horn! I-I think they've been attacked!" One of the radio operators shouted in a panic.

"I've got Kaneda! There's been a second wave! T-they've been attacked as well!" another called. "The Americans attempted to launch fighters, but their runway's been just been hit! Their defences are down as well! They're evacuating!"

"No shit, that's what I'd do if I were them!"

"What happened to _our_ CAP? I thought _we_ had air cover? What the hell is our air force doing?!"

"Oh gods, Okinawa, Ishigaku and Naha are getting bombed as well! C- Casualty counts unknown!"

Sakai's office was abuzz with panicked reports as his staff attempted to ascertain what was going on. They'd seen the flights of Abyssal planes soaring overhead past them towards Okinawa Naval Base, and had immediately attempted to warn them. The warning had come too late though, and now the blaze and smoke from the north could be seen all the way over in White Beach... one that was soon joined by similar fires from all over the island.

Okinawa was under siege.

"That many targets, all at the same time? They must have five... no six carriers, at least," Yvonne mused to herself, as she mentally estimated the amount of firepower that would be needed to cause this much damage in such a short span of time.

Damn it, this was an absurd amount of fighting strength gathered in one place!

Yvonne watched Sakai direct his men from the side, the man clearly trying to make heads or tails of the situation. This was a nightmare scenario that nobody had dreamed of happening. The Abyssals were bombing them, and they had no idea what sort of response the military bases on the island were mustering to meet their attackers.

"What the hell is Shimada doing? He's the one who is supposed to stop this sort of thing from happening," Sakai said, wiping his sweating face with a handkerchief, clearly feeling the pressure. "Damn it, we don't have enough information."

The worst part was that this was a refugee centre: their ability to defend themselves was next to nothing. Worse, it seemed that the Abyssals were deliberately targeting communications facilities, to sever the lines of communication between Okinawa's various bases.

This was very bad indeed.

"Damn, we have no choice," Sakai said with a snarl. "Begin evacuation procedures of the refugees."

A gasp went around the room as his men processed his words.

Evacuation. A word that meant abandoning their position. What made the order truly absurd was the fact the evacuation of this base meant moving over one hundred thousand refugees to hastily built 'designated bomb shelters' situated further inland in the event of an emergency.

They'd planned for it of course, but had never actually been able to practice it. Moreover, these shelters had only been built by the government to 'conform' to international pressure regarding the ethical treatment of their refugees, and had never expected to be actually used.

Even Yvonne knew the accusations about the shoddy construction, poor placement and general ineffectiveness surrounding these 'shelters'... But it was still better than staying out in the open here at White Beach, facing the open water where the carriers were situated.

They were sitting ducks in White Beach, and if the Abyssals decided the refugee camp was a target as well, things would be disastrous.

"What are you waiting for?" Sakai shouted, leaping out of his own chair for the door. "Evacuate the refugees to the shelters! NOW!"

The room jumped into action as every man wearing a uniform rushed out to obey his command. Sakai turned to Yvonne with a question upon his lips, but thankfully one she had anticipated.

"Just tell me where you need me, Colonel," Yvonne nodded affirmatively.

"Thank you, Commander," Sakai nodded gratefully.

The pair quickly left the room and exited the building to see the exodus already well underway. It was chaotic though, with frightened people scrambling uncoordinatedly on foot to escape what could be a massive killing field if the Abyssals returned.

The one hundred or so staff on the base were doing their best to keep it organized, but it was difficult due to the sheer scale of what needed to be accomplished. Thankfully, hundreds ofw residents from the nearby cities of Uruma and Okinawa, hearing a call for help, had rushed over to aid in the evacuation. Indeed, Yvonne found herself working with an honest to goodness film crew from the local news station who had rushed over to help the second the bombs had started dropping.

It was still difficult though.

"Damn the trucks! It's not that far anyway. I don't care if they have to run, just get them off the base and into the shelters!" Sakai barked as he and Yvonne helped a crippled old man into the back of an over loaded pickup truck that wasn't even a military vehicle.

Even so it just wasn't enough.

In the distance, the drone of planes could be heard overhead as the second wave of attackers returned from their strikes and headed south for their carriers. The smoke from their latest raids was rising over into the air around them. It seemed like the Abyssals had hit everything.

From the constant stream of damage reports over the radio, that seemed to be the case. It was clear that the Abyssal planes would need to reload and rearm, but the time that would take was not long enough for Yvonne's liking. They would be back with a third wave, and then a fourth, then a fifth. That did not bode well.

"Colonel, I just checked with the man we sent ahead!" An officer reported back over short range radio, "There's a problem with one of Shelter Two's doors! It won't open, we can't fit everyone in the remaining shelters!"

Yvonne and just about every one of Sakai's staff paled at that.

"DAMN!" Sakai roared, slamming a hand against the hood of a nearby truck. "Send someone to Uruma, see if they have any space in their own shelters! Hurry, we don't have much time!"

The man complied, but his face was ashen. This was a delay they did not need.

Slowly helping the good hearted reporter and his news crew put six children in the back of his small van, Yvonne realized if they needed to make for the safety of the nearby city, there would be no chance that they would be able to get even a quarter of these people to safety before the planes came back. If they decided to bomb White Beach instead of passing over it, it would be a slaughter.

Thousands would die. Yvonne was running out of options.

"Damn it... I have no choice," Yvonne said, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth... only to feel a hand rest on her shoulder. Yvonne spun around to see

Yamato behind her, the battleship's face set in determination.

"Commander Swanson," Yamato looked Yvonne in the eye, "I have a request."

* * *

With his radar facilities a burning pyre, and no reinforcements coming, Shimada had been left with little more than his backup comms to work with. He'd quickly gathered his Kanmusu fleet, all of whom had survived the initial attack with only minor injuries, and ordered his girls out to sea to sally forth and meet the Abyssals head on. It was a gamble: he was betting that his girls would be able to close with the Abyssal carriers before their air wings returned... and he also wanted to show these monsters who had dared attack them the glory of Japanese naval power.

It was there that they'd run into a problem.

"It's an Abyssal force! Admiral, they're at the mouth of Kinbu bay, east of Ike island approaching due south! Three battleships and a squadron of destroyers!"

Fuso barked over the radio. "Admiral, we have to intercept!"

"It's a trap," Shimada hissed from inside the hastily set up command post in the port facility, one of the last buildings in his base that yet remained standing.

Looking at the map that was laid out on his table as well as the position markers he was using keep track of his ships, he'd realized that his fleet had fallen for a pincer manoeuvre he could never have seen coming.

The surface fleet north of their position was a threat his own fleet could not ignore. They would have to turn and face the enemy. While there was no doubt in his mind that his own force of experienced warships would prevail against the enemy force, the problem was that being occupied by these enemies would prevent them from addressing the real threat to the south, namely, the main enemy carrier force.

"Admiral, we are engaging the enemy! Main guns, secondary guns, fire-!" Fuso announced, the radio breaking into static as she fired her entire battery of 35.6cm guns.

"How could this have happened?" Shimada snarled, slamming an open hand onto the table.

His fleet was in a very bad position: by engaging the enemy to the north, they would be poorly placed to receive the inevitable return of the dive bombers from the south. With the number of planes those carriers had, another wave could possibly sink his entire fleet in one go!

Retreat was impossible. The enemy was blocking the only route out. Unless something changed, he had to stand and fight. He'd called for help, but reinforcements would never make it in time. It would all be down to him and his girls.

"Admiral, look!" One of the technicians called.

The Admiral looked up from his table to see what his entire staff was now staring at.

One of the ship berths bathed in sunlight: the rigging contained within slowly dissolving into motes of light as it was summoned forcefully across time and space to its owner. Shimada felt his jaw drop as he realized what had happened.

He had deployed all the Kanmusu in his base in response to the attack, but in the confusion of battle he had forgotten that there was one visiting Kanmusu he had failed to account for.

As the last motes of light dissolved into the ether, sending the massive rigging of 46 cm turrets, secondary batteries and anti-aircraft guns to its owner, one thing was certain.

Japanese battleship Yamato was going into battle once more.

* * *

Although it wasn't a common practice, it was possible for a Kanmusu to summon her rigging and equipment to her without manually donning it at the port facility.

The reason this was rarely dow was because, for some reason that had to do with the way their powers worked, it was extremely fuel inefficient. Depending on the distance between a Kanmusu and her rigging, using this power could consume as much as ninety percent of her fuel supplies before she'd even stepped on the water.

In fact, when the motes faded and her rigging had appeared around her, Yamato was down to just under a third of her fuel reserves.

It would have been an unacceptable trade in any normal circumstance, but there was one thing that made this emergency measure worthwhile this one time: by the time Yamato got underway, her main batteries were already in range of the enemy carriers.

Commander Swanson had managed to locate the Wo-class carriers south of their position with a pair of loaned binoculars, just before Yamato had hopped off the pier. It had seemed that, with the successful bombing of all the island's major military facilities and the lack of any organized air response, the Abyssal fleet had become too confident for their own good.

An astounding ten Wo-class carriers and a token force of destroyers as screen had closed to a mere ten kilometres from the Okinawa coastline, to speed up the recovery and deployment of their fighters. Indeed, a third wave was in the process of taking off after re-armament now, unaware that they were already within striking range of the most powerful battleship ever built.

It was a move that most naval tacticians wouldn't have considered unless they were supremely confident that the carriers would be safe from attack... and indeed, were it not for Yamato's fortuitous position, they would have been, since every other asset on the island was too damaged or too preoccupied to fend them off.

The fate of Okinawa now rested on the shoulders of one ship. One Kanmusu.

Yamato.

"Nice and slow, Yamato. Stay close to the shore, and keep things nice and slow. Don't open up just yet," Commander Swanson's voice ordered her from the encrypted satellite phone she'd given Yamato. It was CIA made, and operated on an entirely different frequency from the JSDF's regular channels. Hopefully the Abyssals would not be able to pick it up, if they were trying to listen in.

Yamato moved across the water at a slow ten knots, hugging the coastline as best she could, as she closed the distance between her and the carriers. She attempted to remain as inconspicuous as possible by using the shore and smoke from inland fires to mask her approach. Watching her with the aid of high powered binoculars from the tip of the pier of White Beach, a suicidally exposed position in most normal circumstances, was her Commander.

"That's the way, Yamato. Easy does it. Keep it nice and slow," the Commander said over the phone. "Bastards are looking entirely the wrong way. Looks like it's going to work."

"I, Yamato, have a clear line of fire on the Wo-Class, Commander," Yamato said, her eyes occasionally flicking from her course towards the Wo-class.

"Not yet. Just hold on." The Commander's tense voice was her reply. "Wait for it."

She hadn't activated her main radar just yet since the Commander had made it absolutely clear that she could not attract attention until the right moment. All her guns were oriented in the correct direction, just itching to be unleashed on the enemy, but she could not use them.

It was nerve wracking at being so close to these Wo-Class carriers, especially since she was seeing them in launching the final dive bombers of the third wave. By all rights, she could have interrupted it, preventing a quarter of those fighters from ever getting into the air.

But she couldn't. Not yet.

The final aircraft of the third wave joined their brethren in the air, and moved as one massive cloud of death towards towards White Beach.

Unlike the first and second waves, which had split up and attacked virtually every military facility and settlement on Okinawa they could, this third wave seemed intent on the destruction of a single target, or group of targets as the case may be, due north in Kinpu Bay.

Yamato bit her lip as the mass of Abyssal planes moved closer and closer to White Beach, over a hundreddive bombers moving closer and closer to the mass evacuation. Almost one hundred thousand refugees without cover would be at the mercy of this force. The dark cloud moved closer, and closer, and closer until they were almost over White Beach, and the exposed Commander Swanson standing on the pier, once more...

...then they were directly over White Beach...

...and then they were past White Beach, heading further north, where the sounds of heavy cannon fire could be heard in the distance.

Commander Swanson's gamble had paid off. When she'd heard the distant sounds of naval cannon fire in the north, she'd realized that the fleet at Okinawa Naval Base had survived and were engaged with the enemy. The intelligence officer had quickly done a mental calculation and decided, based on the likely situation the fleet girls up north were facing, the target of the third wave would be the Kanmusu fleet trying to get out of the harbor.

It had been a dangerous gamble, one that could have ended badly for Swanson herself if she'd read the situation wrong. But she had been right, and now the Abyssal carriers were at Yamato's mercy. With the entirely of their air power north, the carriers were without their teeth.

"Yamato, load high explosive, and orient your guns in their direction if you haven't already," Commander Swanson ordered, something that Yamato was all too happy to oblige.

"High explosive loaded, Commander."

"Remember, Yamato," Commander Swanson said firmly, "you don't have to sink them. The idea is to damage all of them enough to knock out their flight decks before the bombers can come back."

"I, Yamato, understand. Ready to fire on your command." Yamato exhaled deeply.

Her Admiral had explained the plan to her before she had left the pier. The strategy was incredibly risky, but it was the one that presented the highest chance of success. Strange at it sounded to Yamato, the most powerful battleship's only chance of fending off this Abyssal sneak attack would be to launch one of her own.

If Commander Swanson was right about reading the third wave's target, and thankfully it looked like she had been, the overconfident Abyssals would be so focused on sinking what remained of Okinawa's Kanmusu fleet and would not notice the single battleship sneaking up on them.

Just as well too. As a lone battleship, Yamato was just as vulnerable as they were: if the dive bombers of the third wave decided to focus extensively on her instead of on the fleet, Yamato would be sunk before she would be able to finish her mission. Worse, if she intercepted them as they were taking off, the close range would prevent her from taking full advantage of her anti-aircraft San-shiki shells.

She would be sunk. As the only Kanmusu in Okinawa that had any chance at neutralising the carriers, that was unacceptable.

Her only chance would be to allow the bombers to first expend a fair portion of their payload on the Kanmusu fleet before opening fire. Not enough that the fleet would sustain unacceptable casualties, but just enough that Yamato would be able to survive when the bombers inevitably came back to avenge the hopefully crippled carriers.

There would _have_ to be a third wave. There _mustnot_ be a fourth.

In the distance, Yamato could hear the first bombs being dropped, a sound that caused the naval fire from the Kanmusu to stop, as they attempted to use what anti-air weapons they had to fend off the massive attack. With the submarines gone, there were only nineteen Kanmusu stationed in Okinawa Naval Base. The dive bombers had enough ordnance to sink four times that number.

"Wait for it..." Commander Swanson said.

In her mind's eye, Yamato could picture the ship girls of Okinawa weathering a rainfall of bombs being dropped on their heads. Fuso, Yamashiro, Mikuma, Hiyou... those girls were probably in the middle of hell right now. Yamato felt helpless rage well within her. Chances were one or more of the other Kanmusu would be sinking right now.

"Wait for it..." Commander Swanson said.

It wasn't Yamato's fault though. She knew that if she opened too soon, all she would be doing was signing her own death warrant, and those of every other person on the island, including the Kanmusu. The entire plan depended on her killing the carriers to prevent a fourth wave.

No, the fault for all this suffering, for the refugees, her countrymen and the suffering of entire human race lay with the Abyssals. It was their fault, and it was Yamato's duty to take them to task.

"Wait for it..."

Yamato waited. The bombs fell.

"YAMATO, NOW!"

"Battleship Yamato, all batteries, commence ripple fire!" Yamato switched on her radar, bringing all her systems online as her cannons were finally allowed to vent their fury. Her first shot, made without aid of her radar, on pure optical fire control, landed just short of the first Wo-class and alerted them to the fact that they were now squarely within her sights.

All the Abyssals, carriers and escorts, pivoted to face Yamato.

It didn't matter though.

The look of surprise that lead Wo-class had when a second 46 centimetre shell, aim adjusted, slammed into her face and killed her, was something Yamato would never forget.

* * *

 _She had watched her plan to punish the criminals unfold._

 _There were fires all over the island. With their military bases neutralised and the island's residents in confusion, she now directed the echoes to her true target: the small fleet of criminals that were desperately attempting to fight their way to safety._

 _With her unseen hand, she'd ordered the echoes to focus on the criminals trapped in the bay, who had just managed to slay the last of the echoes she had sent to occupy them. Their efforts at escape had almost succeeded, but ultimately it was futile._

 _Hell rained from the sky, bathing them in a baptism of fire that was their just punishment. However, she had been careful to order her echoes not to kill them._

 _Bomb after bomb fell, wounding and maiming, but not killing. Each criminal was hit again and again until they could no longer stand, no longer fight... no longer resist, but the final blow did not come for even their most wounded._

 _No, they would not die at the hands of the echoes. Their deaths would be by her hand, and her hand alone._

 _Already, most of the criminals were more concerned with staying alive than putting up a fight against her fliers, and with each bomb that dropped their resolve weakened._

 _Trapped in the bay, they would be at her mercy, as her friend had been._

 _The echoes had done their part, and now it was her turn. Already she had picked out a familiar target: a battleship that had been there at the massacre that had taken the life of her friend. The one she had singled out hadn't actually participated in the slaughter, but the criminal had been there, sitting on the sidelines watching as the bombs fell and desecrated the blue waters of her home with fire and blood._

 _As far as she was concerned, that battleship was just as culpable as the ones who had carried out the attack. It was time for the criminals to accept their just punishment._

 _She would deliver it._

 _This was how it was meant to be._

 _She raised her weapon and prepared to fire..._

 _...then the echoes started to die._

 _She lowered her weapon in confusion, shocked at this sudden change._

 _The echoes were dying._

 _This shouldn't be happening. Her plan had been perfect: with the island bombed and its defenders crushed beneath her heel, the echoes should have been safe. Yet one by one, her advance force of carriers was being sunk. Not all of them of course, for whatever was attacking them was merely attempting to wound them enough to put them out of the battle, but enough of them were sinking that she realized that something had been changed._

 _Turning her senses to where she had left the carriers, she saw something._

 _In her clouded, distorted vision, a nexus of power appeared before her eyes. It was in the form of a golden chrysanthemum, shining with the light of the rising sun, blossoming near the coast. It was an incredible power that almost blinded her with its brilliance._

 _It was this power that was picking off her echoes, one by one. The sword and shield of an Empire, rising like the dawn sun itself against her._

 _In the haze of battle, she knew who it was. An aura like that could only belong to one individual._

 _"Ya... ma... to..."_

 _And just like that, her target changed._

* * *

"Carriers down!" Yamato exulted, as the last of the ten carriers was neutralized.

The power of her 46cm cannons had laid them low, with four of the Wo-Class sinking and the other six too damaged to even fight back. The entire enemy force, carriers and their escorts, were in full retreat. The attack was a success!

"Yamato, the bombers are turning around. Switch to AA and prepare to intercept them," Yvonne ordered from the radio. "I'm going to head over to help evacuate the rest of the refugees and get you some reinforcements. Can you hold out on your own until then?"

"I can, Commander. See to the evacuation. I, Yamato, will deal with these enemies."

Yamato loaded anti-aircraft shells into her cannons as she prepared to receive the massive swarm of bombers that was flying back towards her.

While the carriers were neutralized, at least a third the bombers had not yet released their payloads. The others had dropped them and were essentially unarmed. With the number of bombers that were a threat to Yamato whittled down that much, she was in a better position to repulse their attack and sweep them from the sky.

What had concerned Commander Swanson and Yamato was the rest of the Abyssal surface fleet. The refugees were still out in the open, exposed near the beach. If the Abyssals realized that all they needed to do to cause massive casualties would be to turn their guns on the mass of people, it would still be a disaster. Even a lone cruiser or destroyer could kill hundreds before Yamato could stop them, and that couldn't be allowed to happen. It was her turn to be the one to face the enemy and draw their fire. She had to get their attention.

"Yamato, commence firing of all batteries!"

The force and thunder of her massive cannons shook the oceans, her first salvo arcing high into the air and blowing apart the lead bombers as they crested over the edge of the pier that Commander Swanson had just been on. Dozens of Abyssal bombers, flying in close formation, were easy prey for her Type-3 anti-aircraft shells. They fell from the sky en masse.

Unfortunately, she would only manage to get a single salvo of Type-3 shells off, as the remaining fighters closed the distance faster than she would be able to reload. It didn't matter though: the Type-3 shells would have disrupted her main anti-aircraft armament anyway.

Zig-zagging on the waves as best as she was able to, hopefully to make herself a harder target for the enemy, Yamato's complement of 12.7cm and 25cm guns roared to life, throwing up a wall of gunfire that the unfortunate dive bombers flew right into. Soon, they were falling from the sky like droplets of rain during a storm, most never even coming close enough to deliver their payloads.

The few that did were too busy trying to dodge to score more than a glancing hit that Yamato easily shrugged off. The swarm of dive bombers that had terrorized Okinawa and had set the island ablaze had met a fortress of steel on the ocean, and against its walls the Abyssal air groups, in their depleted state, were unable to get through.

This was the power of the super battleship Yamato, the secret weapon of developed by the Empire at Kure Naval Yard so long ago. The symbol of Japan's naval power and fighting resolve.

Against her, no ordinary foe would prevail.

But among the Abyssal fleet that day, there was one among them who was indeed no ordinary foe.

After twenty minutes of fending off attack after attack, Yamato's first warning was a curious alert on her radar, soon followed by a familiar sound. The drone of propeller engines approaching from the east as she pursued the fleeing carrier group signalled the approach of a single squadron of thirty two propeller planes.

"Ah, reinforcements? Finally!" Yamato said to herself. She remained at her station off the beach, keeping it secure of any adventurous Abyssal escorts, her AA guns firing at the occasional plane that darted in to distract her.

These must have been the reinforcements that Commander Swanson promised. The Commander's best estimates had been that it would take at least forty minutes for anyone to get to Yamato. Surely her Admiral must have done something truly spectacular to get these so quickly!

She should thank the Commander for responding and ask what their next move should be.

"Commander Swanson," Yamato spoke into her phone, hoping the sound of all her anti-aircraft batteries firing hadn't made her too hard to hear. "I see reinforcements approaching from the east!"

"What?!" Commander Swanson's reply came back. As Yamato feared her voice had been hard to hear over the clamorous of her anti-aircraft batteries. "Yamato, I'm evacuating the last of the refugees of the beach! It's too damn noisy, speak up!"

"I see the aircraft that you sent as my reinforcements!" Yamato shouted into the radio. "Should I continue pursuit of the enemy carrier group?"

"Reinforcements? What reinforcements?!"

"The fighters approaching from the east!" Yamato clarified. "They're ours... right?"

"...Oh, shit! Yamato, whoever those fighters are, they aren't ours!" The Commander's voice was filled with alarm. "THEY'RE NOT OURS! YAMATO-"

The warning had come too little too late. The planes that Yamato had thought were her allies swooped down on her, dropping their explosives. Her guns, all pointed to the mass of Abyssals due north, did not have time to intercept these new enemies.

Unlike the Abyssal bombers that had been harassed by Yamato's anti-aircraft guns and had been unable to make a clear approach, these bombers had no such problems.

A well-aimed bomb slammed into her portside secondary turrets, blowing the entire assembly clean off and tumbling into the ocean depths. Another one found its mark on her port main turret, reducing the powerful 46 cm battery to scrap. Another hit the palm of her left hand, breaking two fingers and burning her flesh, and yet another dislocated her left shoulder. Mixed in that attack was a torpedo bomber, and its payload found its mark on her left leg.

Her parasol tumbled from her grasp as her right hand went to cradle her ruined left.

If it wasn't for her thick armour, Yamato knew those limbs would have been lost. As it was, she could feel her that shoulder was dislocated, and a bloodied gash now ran down her thigh. It was only because of her manoeuvring that they didn't score more hits, but the splashes around Yamato had shown her this was a close thing.

Someone was screaming in pain.

It took Yamato ten seconds to realize that it was her.

What was going on? Abyssals did not use propeller planes! Their air force was made up of monstrous flying beings! Those planes shouldn't have attacked her!

Yet the pain in Yamato's side told her otherwise. Casting her gaze above her, Yamato looked up to see what had just attacked her.

What she saw was something she could never have predicted.

"Douglas SBD dive bombers?" Yamato gaped at the navy blue fighters as they flew back west, a trail of unearthly miasma surrounding them.

She couldn't believe her eyes: those planes were identical to ones she had seen in the pictures of her books. The primary dive bomber of the US Navy during the earliest days of the war, these fighters were formidable weapons that were responsible for sinking many Japanese ships...

Somehow, the Abyssals were using them... and they had severely damaged her.

"Yamato! Yamato, I heard a scream! Talk to me!" the Commander called over the radio.

But Yamato did not answer, because just visible over the eastern horizon was the last thing Yamato wanted to see. Seven Nu-class carriers, something their plans hadn't taken into account, were launching their own bombers.

And in the centre of this formation was something, a figure shrouded in purple fog... something new. Something powerful. Something no Japanese Kanmusu had ever encountered before.

It wanted to kill her. The situation had suddenly become very grim.

In moments, Yamato had lost all her port-side weapons, including half of the anti-aircraft guns that she had been relying on to keep her alive. The Abyssal fleet carriers to the south were no longer a threat, but this new force due east had more than enough firepower to kill her and resume the attack on the island.

The dive bombers that had been harrying her earlier had just broken off altogether now that this new force had emerged.

Indeed, Yamato could see now that the first set of bombers had tried the exact same thing she had been attempting to pull on them: by sacrificing themselves to draw her attention, this second fleet had been able to seriously wound her... the only ship protecting Okinawa!

"Yamato, what's going on? Yamato, talk to me!" Commander Swanson yelled, panic and fear clear in the American's voice. "YAMATO!"

Yamato closed her eyes and spoke.

"Commander... I, Yamato, have been hit."

* * *

"Seven carriers and an unknown Abyssal?" Yvonne said in a shaky voice from where she sat in the rear of an army truck, filled with people. "Oh, my god..."

Between the time it took for the bombers to rearm and the precious time that Yamato had bought them, the evacuation was almost complete. In fact, Yvonne was in one of the last vehicles to depart, and there were more JSDF and volunteer personnel in the truck than there were refugees. They hadn't left yet: Colonel Sakai had gone to make one final check to make certain that there was no one remaining in White Beach before leaving himself.

The cities of Uruma and Okinawa, hearing their plight over the sub-par emergency shelters, had offered to take them all in. Indeed, public transportation had donated almost nineteen busses to aid in the evacuation. While this wasn't nearly enough, it helped immensely. Though many refugees had been forced to run towards Uruma, the exodus was almost complete.

Without aircraft, the Abyssal fleet's options to hit the island were drastically limited. The civilians just needed to get out of range of the Abyssal cannons into any kind of shelter, and wait for relief. Now all they had to do was ride out what was left of the Abyssals... at least that was the plan.

"The enemy had an auxiliary force?" Yvonne whispered in horror. As long as the auxiliary force remained, so too did the Abyssals' air power.

Their plan had been entirely dependent on hitting the carriers to prevent a fourth wave and then mopping up the rest with reinforcements, but within a split moment it had all fallen apart.

"Seven Nu-class and one unknown, likely a fleet carrier of some kind," Yamato wheezed, clearly in pain. "I can't be certain, but I believe it's a commander-type. I'm falling back to take a more defensive position."

"Yamato, hold on!" Yvonne said quickly fumbling with another other radio, this one tuned to the JSDF's frequencies. "I've been on the horn with Okinawa Naval Base. Backup is on the way!"

"P-Please hurry!" Yamato said.

In the distance, the roar of Yamato's remaining primary batteries thundered as she defiantly held out against the air power that was now bearing down on her.

There was a thump from the front of the vehicle as someone opened the passenger side door at the front of the truck and hopped in. It was Colonel Sakai.

"The base is empty! Go, Go, Go!"

The vehicle roared to life as it, and the last few trucks on the base, roared out through the open gate towards safety. Against all odds, the evacuation was a success.

And it was all thanks to one officer and one ship.

Around Yvonne, the anxious faces of the other volunteers and servicemen watched worriedly as the American desperately fiddled with the JSDF radio, trying to bring up Admiral Shimada. They'd heard the drama unfolding next to them, and knew their saviour was fighting for her life alone while outnumbered and crippled.

Yamato's only chance was the ship girl fleet in Okinawa Naval Base, and everyone knew it.

Yvonne had managed to get in touch with Okinawa Naval Base fifteen minutes ago, and had immediately been patched through to the Admiral himself. The man had abrasively ordered her to fill him in on what she had forced Yamato to do. Not wanting to let whatever chip he had on his shoulder get in the way of the actual defense, she had quickly filled him in on her plan.

He wasn't happy. Nor was he happy when she'd revealed that she wanted him to divert what ship girls he had left down south to aid Yamato. He'd tersely replied that he needed to check in with his fleet to see if any of them were still able to fight after the bombing, a bombing Yvonne had allowed, before 'considering' her request. Then he'd signed off.

She had let it go at the time. He was right that Yvonne had essentially allowed his girls to take the brunt of the enemy's attack and needed to do a damage check, but now she needed those reinforcements immediately. If she didn't get them, Yamato would die.

"Commander Swanson," Shimada's voice came on the radio.

"Admiral Shimada!" Yvonne said frantically. "Yamato has been hit by a second enemy battlegroup due east! She needs help immediately or she won't be able to make it! She needs help!"

She immediately filled him in on the situation, desperation fuelling her every word. Seven escort carriers and one unidentified carrier was a powerful force, but not one that a team of experienced Kanmusu could not defeat, or at very least hold off, until relief from the mainland could arrive.

If he had any reinforcements, then they had a fighting chance. If there weren't, Yamato, and every person on the island for that matter, could die.

"Admiral, please! Tell me you have something!" Yvonne all but begged.

"I do," Shimada informed her. "Fuso and Yamashiro were badly damaged in the fighting, but we managed to effect emergency repairs on them using instant repair buckets. Same with Mikuma, Furutaka and Kako. The rest of the fleet is currently out of action."

"Oh thank god! You-"

"I have ordered a defensive line to be formed at the mouth of Kinbu bay and have ordered an immediate evacuation of JSDF personnel at Okinawa Naval base," Shimada stated. "Once we have finished boarding our ship, we will make for Kure while Fuso and the rest of her fleet escort us. We depart within the next five minutes."

"WHAT?!" Yvonne all but screamed, a sentiment echoed by every other man, woman and child riding in the truck. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"We cannot hold these islands with such a limited force, especially one that has been injured. It is impossible," Shimada justified his actions. "We will have to evacuate with what little we can and come back later to reclaim Okinawa. I have left standing orders for all remaining JSDF personnel to go into hiding until we return."

The bastard was running.

"Shimada, you can't do this! You're leaving all these civilians! Hell, you're leaving _your own goddamn people!_ " Yvonne snarled casting her eyes around the truck. "You have the only combat effective force left on this island, and you're just _leaving?_ "

Forget leaving the refugees out in the lurch; Shimada was effectively abandoning the entire island chain to the mercy of the enemy. One and a half million people, native Okinawans, refugees from Vietnam and thousands of his own comrades and countrymen, would be without protection.

"I don't have enough ships! There is nothing I can do!" Shimada fired back, his own voice quivering. "We cannot hold the islands!"

"You goddamn coward! You're not even trying!" Yvonne accused.

"I have five ships! I will not send _my_ girls to fight a battle they cannot win! They are tired, they are outnumbered and they cannot fight like this! _YOU_ made them this way!"

"But Yamato and the civilians-"

"Yamato is lost!" Shimada retorted angrily, " _You_ sent her out there, not me! Her death, and the deaths of every one we've lost today, is due to _your_ interference!"

"DON'T GIVE ME THAT YOU SON OF A BITCH! YOU GAVE THE EVACUATION ORDER BEFORE I EVEN TOLD YOU ABOUT THE SECOND FLEET!" Yvonne roared, her hands in a white-knuckled grip around the radio, unable to believe anyone could be so delusional.

"I HAVE FIVE SHIPS! THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO!"

"BULLSHIT! SHIMADA YOU FUCKING COWARD, YOU ARE LEAVING THESE PEOPLE TO DIE!"

The radio squealed and the channel died. Shimada had had enough and had switched off his radio, terminating the communication.

There was a long silence as everyone processed what had just happened, the only sound being that of the vehicle's engine and the tires on the road. Yvonne traced her eyes across all their horrified faces.

"Well... shit."

"Ain't that something. If we miraculously live though this, I know what my next story is going to be," the reporter that had volunteered to help snarked darkly. "He'd better hope those bombs kill me, or the joke's going to be on him."

"Oh god, what are we going to do?" A junior JGSDF officer muttered.

"Get to shelter and ride the storm out," Sakai said firmly from the front.

Despite having heard that his superior had just abandoned him and every other JSDF soldier on the island, Sakai's face was one of grim determination. Everyone, Yvonne included, turned to the man who was now their anchor in the storm.

"Shimada would have reported the attack with his backup comms. It'll take time, but the bases on the mainland _will_ send help," Sakai told them. "As much as I hate to admit it, Shimada has the right idea. We have to take shelter, keep a low profile and weather the storm until help arrives. The Abyssals' bombs are powerful, but we can survive them if they don't know where to hit us."

"Do you really think we can?" the junior officer asked.

"Of course. Japan's been through worse," Sakai nodded.

He was right: dive bombers were very accurate, but their accuraccy was predicated on knowing exactly where to strike. If they played their cards right, the amount of casualties could be reduced by making it difficult for the Abyssals to figure out what to hit. People would still die, but so to could people survive... and that was what they had to focus on now.

Survival.

"Besides, if we die here we won't be able to see that bastard Shimada hang. I don't know about the rest of you, but that's something I really want to see for myself after that stunt he just pulled," Sakai quipped in jest, causing the truck to erupt in restrained laughter.

"You and me both, Colonel," the newsman said. Murmurs of ascent went around the truck. It wasn't hope, far from it, but stubborn defiance was another emotion that could keep them going.

Yvonne marveled at these people. Even in a hopeless situation, they could keep on going. Never underestimate the power of human will.

A crack of thunder in the distance reminded Yvonne and everyone else of another pressing matter.

"Oh god, Yamato is still out there," someone whispered.

With Shimada having abandoned them, the people of Okinawa would be forced to hide and take shelter to survive. However, this was an option that Yamato, facing off against the entire Abyssal fleet on her own, did not have. Their savior was about to die.

Scrambling for her phone, Yvonne discovered to her horror that it had been on the whole time. Yamato had heard every word.

"Yamato..."

"I... Yamato heard, Commander." Yamato's voice was shaky, and sniffles could be heard.

Although Yvonne could not see her face, she knew Yamato was in tears. Who could blame Yamato for this? Her comrades had just abandoned her. Worse still, she was alone and facing certain death, knowing that after the Abyssals were done with her, they would strike at the people she had fought so hard to protect. All her efforts had been for one could stay composed after hearing that.

"Yamato, I... I just..."

What could Yvonne say? Without the fleet, there was no chance for Yamato to survive. The odds were too much in the enemy's favour. Anyone trying to help her would just be killed as well.

Everyone knew she was dead already: the Abyssals just hadn't carried the sentence out. _Yet._

The girl who had tried to save them all would die.

Nobody knew how to respond to that.

"I... I just figured it out," Yamato laughed mirthlessly.

"Figured what out?" Yvonne asked softly.

"What the A-Abyssals were trying to do," Yamato replied, her voice hitching in pain. She'd been hit again, but was trying not to show it. "It was in the book I was reading. Battle of Okinawa, the bombing of Okinawa by the Ah-American fleet. It's a-as you said, Commander, th-the Abyssals are trying to repeat history."

Yvonne paled and felt her stomach drop.

Not because Yamato had just blurted out classified information, the secret behind her theories, while there were people to hear... but because Yamato was right.

Operation Iceberg.

A campaign conducted by TF 58, a force of fleet carriers and escort carriers, to support the invasion of the island by the United States. Their mission had been to win air superiority and provide air support for the land invasion force... one which they executed through a brutal campaign of bombing to neutralise enemy assets all over the island.

The Abyssals of course had twisted this to their own ends.

How could she had not seen this? If Yvonne had realized this sooner, she would have warned Yamato of the danger of there being additional carriers. Hell, she might even have revised her entire strategy! However, Yvonne had been so focused on the evacuation that it hadn't occurred to her, and now Yamato's fate had been sealed.

"I... I, Yamato, have an idea," the battleship's voice was in pain and fear. However, hidden behind those emotions was one other... resolve. "I... I remember Operation Ten-go."

Yvonne froze in horror.

"I... I can beach myself. I, Yamato, can use myself as a s-stationary battery," Yamato whimpered. "C-can fight longer if I don't have to worry about s-sinking, even it only for a little bit. Give everyone more time to get to shelter."

"Yamato, don't do this," Yvonne pleaded.

If she beached herself, that would be it. While she was right she wouldn't have to worry about sinking, she would also be giving up any chance of escape or retreat, slim as it was. More than that, she would be consigning herself to a painful death.

If she sank, it would be quick and painless, as most ship girls apparently expired quickly once they'd slipped beneath the waves. Death by sinking was the most common way a ship would fall in battle... one that all ship girls accepted.

But if she beached herself, Yamato would be able to keep fighting, and keep suffering, until the Abyssals had worn her away, piece by piece, until the moment she died.

It would not be quick. It would not be painless. There would be nothing left.

"And... and Y-Yamato was thinking, maybe we'd get really lucky," Yamato wheezed. "The Abyssals stopped after they s-sank the Hood right? Maybe after they're th-through with Yamato, they'll be s-satisfied and leave everyone else alone. I-It wouldn't be so bad. D-dying that way."

Around Yvonne, people were crying. Grown men twice Yvonne's age were in tears as they listened to the heroism and selflessness of the battleship Yamato, hoping her death would save them. It was a fantastical dream that would never work, but no one had the heart to tell her otherwise. A few of them were silent, in prayer for the girl's soul. There were more than a few grim faces, the reporter's among them, as his phone recorded their conversation. And Yvonne?

Once more, the girl bearing the name Yvonne Swanson had her hand wrapped around the radio in a white knuckled grip. However, instead of anger at the coward that had run, she was angry at herself. How had she allowed this to happen? Yamato was going to die all over again, and it was all her fucking fault! She should have stepped in at the very start, but now it was too damn late.

There was nothing she could do. Without Shimada's task force, victory was impossible. All she would do, all anyone would do, by going back was pitch her own grave right next to Yamato's.

It was pointless.

"P-Please help everyone survive this. I will be at W-White Beach, Commander. When this i-is all over... I w-would very much like it if you could please come and c-collect me. L-let everyone know I, Yamato, f-fought hard," Yamato said. Yvonne could see the battleship give her a tearful smile. "I-I am happy that I met you, Commander. D-Don't blame yourself."

"Yamato, please..."

"...Goodbye."

"No! Wai-"

The radio went silent.

"Stop this fucking truck."

* * *

Yamato struggled her way towards White Beach, a river of blood in her wake, as her remaining primary battery fired again and again at distant targets. She wasn't going to hit anything though, not with her radar and fire control systems down, after the hammering she'd taken.

Her right arm was broken, her left dislocated. One eye was shut due to blood streaming down the side of her face from a head wound. The knee on her wounded leg was bent at an unnatural angle, forcing Yamato to drag it along... no easy feat since she was sinking.

The water was up to her ankles already as she slowly but surely continued to sink into the water. Where she a steel and rivet vessel, this would be considered taking on water. Her damage control fairies was doing their best, but without help there was nothing that could be done. It remained the same: Yamato was on her last legs.

Another hit would surely finish her.

In the distance, the bombers were refueling and rearming, readying themselves to for another round... giving her a brief respite, one that Yamato was taking full advantage off. Yamato refused to sink, forcing herself forward towards White Beach, as fast as she could.

She needed to beach herself before the fighters came she did so, she would be able to keep fighting, even if it was only for a little while longer. Every second, every moment, she could buy for the people of Okinawa, was all that she fought for now. No matter how short it would be, if she could last even a moment longer, it would be worth it.

She would at last be worthy. She would die, not as the white elephant in the gilded cage she had lived for so long as, but as a true battleship fighting for the worthiest of causes.

In death, she would finally be worthy of the name 'Yamato'.

If she could just beach herself...

But alas, it was not to be. She had suffered too much damage, and that had made her lose too much speed. Her attempts to reach dry land had been doomed from the start, and now she saw death approaching from the east.

"Those treacherous planes a-again." Yamato trained her good eye on the approaching fighters.

Of the planes that the Abyssals had sent to kill her, it was these mysterious SDB dive bombers that had been the most dangerous. They had been more accurate, more resilient, more effective than the typical Abyssal flying monstrosity, to the point she could have sworn that they were better than even the fighters flown by the 1st Carrier Division's elite. Now it seemed that whatever force that controlled them was using them to deliver the final blow... a personal statement, Yamato assumed.

If there was one thing Yamato regretted, it was that she would not be there when Commander Swanson figured out how the Abyssals had managed to get them. Her remaining anti-aircraft batteries turned to fire at them, but it was no good. They were elite fighters, and knew what they were doing. She could hit the other monsters, but these?

These were something else.

Against these elite fighters, and without her radar, Yamato might as well have been firing blanks.

They closed in on her, climbing to begin their attack run. She was still a good kilometer from the beach. It was over.

"I am sorry, Commander. Forgive me."

Yamato closed her eyes and waited for the end.

...just as the sound of guns tore through the air, causing Yamato to jolt and open her eye.

Looking up, she saw an impossible sight: just as the SDBs were nearing the apex of their climb, they had been engaged by something she never would have expected.

Twenty eight prop planes in dark navy blue threw themselves at the SBDs from their starboard side, each plane opening up with four 20mm cannons before the bombers even knew what was happening. The SDBs, focused on their climb and not having expected this sudden intervention, were torn apart as these fighters ripped through their number, scattering them like leaves in the wind.

"What?" Yamato gaped, as she witnessed a massive dogfight between her would be killers and her mysterious saviours began to develop before her eye. It wasn't a very long or fair one though. Scattered by the unexpected attack, the SDBs were run down by the enemy, which were clearly dedicated air superiority fighters from the way they ripped the bombers apart.

Bomber after bomber fell from the sky as these powerful fighters chased them down. The hunters traveled twice as fast as the SDBs. Yamato's would-be executioners could not even flee.

None survived.

She still lived.

Yamato could not believe it. She had been abandoned by the other Kanmusu and their wretched Admiral and had resigned herself to her fate. She had been determined to go down fighting. Yet now, at death's door, she had been saved.

The question was, by whom?

Quickly realizing that the planes had come from the north, she realized that they must have come from the direction of the pier at White Beach, her destination. Her saviour must be in that direction. Grateful to be alive Yamato turned...

And could not believe her eye.

* * *

 _Impossible._

 _Her children had been shot down._

 _Impossible._

 _At the moment of her victory, it had been snatched from her grasp._

 _Impossible._

 _Someone had interfered._

 _Someone had dared to interfere._

 _Hate._

 _Anger._

 _Vengeance._

 _For this insult, the interloper would die!_

 _Snarling within the fog of her miasma, she drew her weapon and looked towards where her new enemy had come from. She prepared to give the order for the echoes_

 _to attack..._

 _...when she **saw**._

 _To mortal eyes, it would have been a young woman, dressed in the trappings of a naval officer of her nation, standing on the edge of a pier. In the woman's hands, a large bow drawn to full. A conspicuous sight to be sure, but a mortal sight for mortal eyes._

 _When she looked, she saw something else entirely._

 _In her clouded, distorted vision, this woman was a nexus of power, one that appeared to her eyes in the form of a maiden in flowing grey robes that billowed in the ocean winds. An ethereal sight, breathtaking and fearsome in equal measure._

 _It was an incredible power, one that she knew all too well._

 _Her rage drained out of her._

 _Fear._

 _Alarm._

 _ **Shame.**_

 _It could not be!_

 _This one should not be here! They had made sure of it!_

 _This one's presence changed everything!_

 _She had to leave._

 _She could not stand against this power alone, none of her friends could!_

 _ **She could not allow this one to see her like this!**_

 _She turned to flee, calling the echoes to follow after her._

 _Her mission had changed. The golden flower of the Empire would live to fight another day._

 _She had to tell her friends who had followed them... tell them the name of the one that would surely stand in their way..._

 _...the name of that shimmering grey ghost_.

* * *

"They're... leaving?" Yvonne wondered, lowering her bow, the F4U-4N Corsair arrow she had just been about to launch still notched in place. She could not believe what she was seeing. The Abyssal fleet was leaving, making best speed due southeast.

They were retreating.

This made no sense. The Abyssals clearly had an overwhelming numerical advantage over them: although her Corsair squadron had decimated those SBDs, something that still baffled her, since no Abyssals had ever used SBDs to her knowledge, the fact of the matter was that they had eight carriers' worth of air wing to her one.

It was such a lopsided engagement that Yvonne had been prepared to sacrifice her entire air wing for the slim chance she would be able to get Yamato off that beach...

But now, the Abyssals were in full retreat. _All_ of them.

"Why?" Yvonne said, finally allowing the bow to rest at her side, setting it down against the side of the motorcycle she'd appropriated on the way here.

It had been tough convincing Sakai to let her come alone, especially since half the truck had wanted to come with her when they'd realized Yvonne had planned to go back for Yamato, but they had relented when she'd explained to them what she was doing.

The whole idea would be for Yvonne to rush in on a motorcycle, grab Yamato from where the stupid, stupid battleship had likely beached herself, and ride like a bat out of hell while the Abyssals bombed the shit out of everything around them like some crazy Hollywood stunt driver in Dakota's no-brainer action movies.

More people there meant more people at risk, and the entire point of the exercise was to just grab Yamato and run like hell; better they go prepare medical facilities for when she did come back with Yamato, so they could treat the girl's wounds.

At least, that had been what Yvonne had told them.

In reality, she just didn't want them around in case it all went pear shaped and they all died, which in all likelihood was what would have really happened... had the Abyssals not suddenly decided to have a change of heart and turned tail.

She could reengage of course, but her mission wasn't to attack the enemy. That they had chosen to disengage was in fact a boon. The prospect of fighting all those carriers was not one that appealed to Yvonne. Their retreat had been puzzling to be sure, but not one she dared contest.

Still, it bothered Yvonne. They had her and Yamato dead to rights, and now they were leaving? This made no sense!

"C-Commander?"

Yvonne turned to look at the frightened voice that had just addressed her. Yamato, looking clearly like she had seen better days, looked up from the edge of the water in shock. The battleship had seen Yvonne launch those Corsairs, had seen Yvonne save her life.

The two stood there in silence.

One standing on the pier, the other just mere feet away from the first in the water.

The look in Yamato's eyes was one of confusion, fear... and betrayal.

"Commander?"

Yvonne closed her eyes and clenched her teeth.

She didn't know what to say. Her secret, the secret America had tried so hard to hide from the world, was out... and Yamato, the last person that Yvonne would have expected to discover it... had.

What was she supposed to say in a situation like this?

"C-Commander?"

"Yamato, I..."

"Commander, help...!"

Yvonne's eyes snapped open as she heard Yamato's plea. The battleship was foundering, unable to stay float after all the wounds she had taken. Yamato's were eyes were wide with terror as she listed port, then starboard, as she attempted to stabilize herself...

"Comman-"

She failed, falling into the water and sinking like a stone.

"Yamato!"

Yvonne dove into the water after her.

* * *

The mainland had not been idle. Within hours of Shimada's report, the JASDF had sent reconnaissance fighters to survey the island. The devastation to the military facilities was was visible enough from the air, but the shelters appeared untouched. A company of Rangers were the first JSDF personnel to return to Okinawa, airdropped onto the island to search for survivors and provide boots on the ground recon.

A day later, a combined fleet of forty ship girls from Yokosuka and Kure, comprised of their fastest ships and carriers, entered the waters of Okinawa. When the fleet arrived, they had feared the worst. What they found was not what they had expected.

Instead of an Abyssal fleet lying in ambush and the massive humanitarian crisis they had expected, they had found Okinawa relatively intact. Other than the damage inflicted from the initial bombing, targeted at military facilities, no further destruction had been wrought on the island.

The island's residents, refugees and any surviving military personal that had been stranded had immediately gone into deep hiding. They had not even allowed the silence that followed to convince them that the Abyssals had left: with Shimada having left them out to dry, it was deemed too much of a risk to break cover until they knew that proper defenses were back up.

They had only come out of hiding when the Rangers had found them and coaxed them out. Supplies were quickly airdropped, then flown in once the runways had been repaired. The Aegis destroyer _Mirai_ and her sister ship, _Yukinami_ , arrived a day later to help shore up the relief effort, alongside the LST _Osumi_ , using her hovercraft to quickly deliver supplies to shore.

Before long, reconstruction efforts had started. For the island to jump back after such a heinous attack was nothing short of a miracle... one that was laid squarely on the shoulders of one individual. Every man, woman and child that had survived the Abyssal raid had begun to ask one simple question:

"Where is the battleship Yamato?"

In their eyes, she was their saviour. Somehow, against all odds, it had been Yamato who had stood up to protect them when the mainland forces had cowardly fled. It had been Yamato who had vowed to defend them to her dying breath. It had been Yamato who had somehow, alone, driven off the Abyssals and saved the island when it had been deemed impossible.

Dead or alive, they wanted to know where their heroine was.

When the Kanmusu of Yokosuka and Musashi of Kure learned of this, they frantically searched the island for sign of their comrade. The stories and facts were undeniable: Yamato had been here, and she had fought the entire Abyssal fleet, alone, even when the fleet at Okinawa Naval Base had fled.

They had to find her... one way or the other.

They tried the beaches and ports, hoping that Sakai's stories about Yamato's last communication were correct. When that failed, they combed the waters for any sign of Yamato, fearing she'd never even made it to dry land. When that failed, they increased their search area, both inland and out at sea searching, desperately for sign of their missing battleship.

For five days and nights they searched in vain.

All they could find were the shattered pieces of Yamato's portside rigging on the ocean seabed, a single burned parasol that had washed up on the beaches of Okinawa... and a single abandoned motorcycle on the White Beach pier.

Of the battleship Yamato, Pride of the Japanese Navy, there was no other sign...

...nor of the American officer who had gone to rescue her.

* * *

 **Kantai Collection: The Greatest Generation**

Part 6: The Grey Ghost

* * *

 **Comrade Archivist Note:** Welp, it's finally done. I have literally pulled an all nighter to get this out - it's past 5.20 AM as I type this, after being up for 22 hours straight. The sun has not yet come out but that's because sunrise is late here in West Malaysia. Some may question the amount of work that goes into these revisions - well, Chapter 6 turned out to be fairly revision heavy with a lot of things to correct.

Before I bore everyone, once again I want to give a big shoutout to Gosu over on SB for his help in the revisions, for tightening up things which we derped on last year, and for helping to make everyone a bit more professional.

Couple of notes here - I feel I should call notice to the unreliable narration that's been going on.

Yes, that is Abyssal!Yorktown there as a boss. None of the Yorktown-class carriers actually spent a lifetime in battle. Yorktown's exaggerating. :V Yorktown is also letting her hateboner get in the way of historical accuracy: there were no battleships at Pearl Harbor, it was a carrier show (aside from Hiei and Kirishima escorting carriers in). Fuso, Yamashiro and Nagato were at the Bonin Islands, which were something like 6000 kilometers from Pearl. Yamato was nowhere near Pearl but wellllll this is what happens when you stop being Competent Carrier and become Hate Demon Abyssal Princess Carrier.

Yvonne is mistaken: the US does not have an exclusive right to base forces in Okinawa - Naha AFB has been a JASDF fighter base since 1979, for example. Also girl, the transfer of bases is hardly an embarrassment - the USN sold its Okinawa facilities to buy a necromancy manual. :V (Credit to Gosu for remarking on that to me in the notes. ;D ) And really she was lucky that Shimada told her as much as he did in the original version, given she doesn't actually have need to know.

Yamato is aware that Commander Swanson is Commander Swanson, but she still privately thinks of her as her Admiral. Hence that little change there whenever the narration is Yamato-focused.

With Chapter 6 out and the major "reveal" outta the way (c'mon, it's an open secret as to who Yvonne is ;P), it's as good as time as ever for me to announce that The Greatest Generation is going on hiatus. I've been working on this story in some form or another for the last 18 months or so. It's time to take a break. I'm tired, very tired, and it's time to let this field lie fallow for a season while I plant my seeds in other fields. This work has been a labor of love for me for so very long, but now it's become all labor and no love.

So it's time to let it rest. And when the love comes back, when the labor is no longer as burdensome... Enterprise will return.

Thank you for reading.

-WG


	9. Interlude: The President's Visitor

"Ma'am, could you please wait here for a moment?"

"Of course, sir."

A small smile. "I'm just an assistant here, Ma'am. Generally, I'm the one who says _sir_ and _ma'am_ to people. Just call me Charlie."

"...Just call me Miss, then. _Ma'am_ makes feel old."

"Difficult when you have such a... storied history. It's intimidating, you know?"

"I only lived to be be thirteen."

"Oh? Oh. Miss it is, then. Wait here, please."

She sits down, back ramrod-stiff, and waits, watching people hurriedly run to and fro like a kicked hornet's nest. She remembers hearing so many tales of the White House, it still seems strange to be able to walk its halls.

She huffs out a humourless laugh. She's not the only one who needs to adjust to the new world, it seems.

The doors open, and Charlie leans out. "The President will see you now, Miss."

She walks into the Oval Office, her step a bit unsure. A quick march does it, though. She startles the group standing there - a man in dress blues and covered in service bars, a short man wrinkled by age, a tall woman with big eyes and a curious expression, and a few other men who turn to face her.

But facing the doors is an older, portly man, and the way he looks at her when she arrives tells her all she needs to know. There is more authority in that man's mere presence than an entire carrier group's arrival.

She stands up straight, hands along the seams of the uniform trousers she is still getting used to, and even though she is terrified of this new world and this man, she looks him straight in the eye and speaks clearly.

"USS Enterprise, CV-6. Reporting for duty, sir."

"At ease, Enterprise."

Feet shoulder-width, arms behind her back. Parade rest. She doesn't need fo think about it. There are so many things she just _knows_ , without any explanation as to _why_. It bothers her.

He looks at her for a long moment, the others exchanging silent expressions that she cannot read in her peripheral vision.

"...You look much younger than I expected."

"She's thirteen, sir," Charlie throws in.

The President swivels to face him, staring widely. "Thirteen?" He turns back to face her, a question in his eyes.

"Thirteen years from the day they laid my keel to the day they decommissioned me, sir. Well, _nearly_ thirteen, if you want a precise answer. Sir."

He keeps staring at her, before sighing and closing his eyes. "I've always had trouble with the concept of having ships... reincarnated as young women. And now we have _children_ fighting a war of desperation against the Abyss."

"I have fought a war once already, sir. I can fight again." She shrugs. "It's what I was made for."

That doesn't seem to convey any reassurance to the formerly most powerful man in the world. He looks at her, smiles with sadness at the corner of his mouth. "Ghosts have a nasty habit of returning at unexpected times, especially when you run a country at war. I'm glad one of them was cloaked in grey, at least."

A pause as he watches her. She doesn't avert her eyes.

"...You've already done so much for your country, Enterprise. We retired you, gave you your deserved rest. But times change. Our once proud Navy is scattered, its sailors dead or dying, our allies fighting to clear the seas for us. You're not the first of your kind, but you're the first of _ours_."

"I know, sir. I was at Pearl."

"...We need you again." He sighs, and stands up straighter himself. "But only if you _want_ to. I won't ask you to pay even greater sacrifices than those you have already given this country." His eyes bore into hers. "But we _do_ need your help again."

"...Back in the day, they called me the 'Lucky E', sir." She smiles for the first time. "Guess we could all use a little more luck."

"Isn't _that_ God's honest truth if I ever heard it." He smiles back warmly, holding out his open hand. "Good to have you back, Enterprise."

She shakes it, the firm, safe grip making her relax for the first time since Pearl Harbor died a screaming death of burning fuel, charred flesh, and twisted steel.

"...It's good to be back, sir."

* * *

Interlude: The President's Visitor

* * *

 **Beta Note** **:** Thanks to Fernandel, over on SV, who wrote this interlude. We like it so very much that it's canon for GG - but then, that's no surprise, given that he also wrote _On the Wings of an Eagle_ which is like the best Zero no Tsukaima/Assasin's Creed 2 crossover I've ever read.

And yes, for the purposes of GG, the sitting president is President Josiah Bartlett, who some may recall was on TV over a decade ago in The West Wing. ;D

And with that, I take my leave once more. GG is still on indefinite hiatus for now - I just forgot to toss this Interlude up at an earlier time. ._.

Cheers, everyone.

\- WG


End file.
